


Finding Home

by kimmyiewrites (arosetosomeone)



Series: Finding Home [1]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, F/M, Minor Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins, loosely based on new girl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2019-10-28 05:31:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 34,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17781476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arosetosomeone/pseuds/kimmyiewrites
Summary: When Katherine comes back to New York, she doesn't expect to be looking for her own place so soon.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is loosely based on the TV show New Girl. Like I draw inspiration from like the first three episodes and that's it but even then things happen a little differently. I'm pretty excited how things are gonna go so I hope you enjoy this first chapter!

“Anyone home?!” Katherine called out as she sat down her suitcase. She had gotten home earlier than expected, so she decided to surprise her family. She would tell them over dinner that she had quit her position at the Chicago Tribune she had landed after college. She had been stuck in the entertainment section for years now and her editor wouldn’t let her break out. All of her ideas had been given to others deemed more important than her. She was tired of it.

“Katherine, darling, we weren’t expecting you.” Her father said, appearing at the top of the stairs, wrapping his robe around him.

“I know. I should have called. I’ll explain over dinner. Is mom around?” She asked, taking off her jacket.

“She’s visiting with your aunt. Why don’t you get unpacked and we’ll catch up, hmm?”

Just then a woman, dressed in her mother’s robe, who definitely wasn’t her mother appeared behind her father. In fact Katherine knew the woman. It was her father’s personal assistant. 

Anger boiled in the young woman’s veins as she backed away from the stairs. “You sure she’s just visiting?” Accusation dripped from her voice. 

Joe turned to see Abigail behind him. He sighed before turning to race after his daughter. “Katherine, wait!”

She turned her fiery glare towards her father. “You can explain?! I’ve talked to both you and mom every day recently and neither one of you brought this up. How long has this been going on?”

“The affair or your mother staying with your aunt?” He asked.

Katherine scoffed. “I can’t believe you even have to ask that!”

“Please, let’s talk about this over diner.” He really hated the look his daughter was giving him. It reminded him of the look her mother gave him when she found out.

“No. I don’t think I could ever hear why you would do this to mom. And I can’t even believe she hasn’t told me about this. I don’t think I could talk to you both right now. I’ll go stay with a friend. I clearly don’t have a home to come back to.” She marched out the front door, slamming the door behind her. 

“And that’s why I’ve been crashing on my friend’s couch lately but I’m starting to cramp his style so then I found you guys, although I gotta admit, I wasn’t expecting three guys.”

“Charlie’s been working on his descriptive words.” Tony teased his friend, nudging the other boy with his elbow. 

“Yeah, and your story was great and al but you do have a job now, right?” Jack asked, leaning forward. Her story didn’t exactly answer their question about if she had a pet but she spun her story in how her father was a dog and he found it pretty clever.

“Not yet. I’ve got an interview with The Sun next week but I’ve got enough in savings and have been doing enough free lance stuff that I could cover the next few months expenses.” She reassured them.

The boys nodded in unison. She didn’t seem too crazy, she was definitely a little over dressed for a roommate interview with her blazer and slacks but she hadn’t said anything that gave them any warning bells.

“Alright, fellas, what’d ya think?” Jack asked them once the three boys were all in the shared bathroom in the loft.

“I like her. I mean sure she’s clearly still angry but I don’t think she’d take that anger out on us.” Charlie said, leaning against the sink.

Tony twiddled with the cigar that he had kept in his pocket. “But she’s a girl and with a girl comes a different set of rules. I vote no.” He said, placing the cigar in his mouth and crossing his arms.

“Guess that means it’s up to you Jackie.” Charlie looked toward his best friend. 

Jack sighed, hoping it would have been a unanimous vote. They really needed another roommate. No one else was answering their ad and their other friends either already had their own place or were still in school. “We don’t have anyone else answering the ad and we don’t know anyone else so I say she’s in.”

“Yay! I’m in!” Katherine exclaimed on the other side of the door. 

Tony just gave a look towards Jack and Charlie as if to say ‘what have you gotten us into?’ The taller of the three opened the door to reveal an embarrassed Katherine, covering her mouth with her hands.

She slowly lowered her hands and gave them a sheepish grin. “Sorry, reporter instincts. Won’t happen again, promise.”

Tony rolled his eyes and walked past her. Charlie smiled, welcoming her to the loft. Jack’s laugh brought her attention back to him. “Som reporter if you give away you eavesdropping.”

“It’s a work in progress.” She shrugged, walking back with him to the main room. “Thank you boys, again. You won’t regret this.”

Crying could be heard from the living room. Katherine was stretched across the couch, face buried in a pillow as she cried. Still dressed in her outfit she wore to her interview, she didn’t realize that she wasn’t alone. Her three new roommates were gathered around the kitchen island, trying to decide what to do about the crying girl.

“Alright, I’ll do it.” Tony said, taking the cigar out of his mouth. “Katherine, doll, stop the crying, please.” He added as an afterthought. Her tears began to slow down as she forced herself to stop crying. She didn’t exactly want to cry in front of the boys, wanted to show them that she was strong. 

“There will be other jobs.” He gave her leg a few pats as he sat down next to her.

“That’s just it,” she sniffled, turning so she could face him. “I did get the job.”

Tony jumped up, throwing his hands in the air. “Then what are you crying for?!” He yelled.

Katherine’s lip began to tremble as she tried to keep it together. Before Tony could yell anymore, Charlie tapped him out. He sat where Tony had been previously been sitting and gave her a friendly smile. “Hey, Katherine.”

“Hi.” She replied back, wiping her tears away.

“Wanna try sitting up? I can hear ya better that way.” He was in full teacher mode, approaching this as he would with a five year old throwing a temper tantrum.

Katherine nodded, appreciating the calmer approach Charlie was using. 

“Now why are you this upset over getting a job?”

Katherine sighed, hugging the pillow she was just crying into closer to her chest. “Because it’s still in the entertainment section of the newspaper. I’m stuck right where I was before I left Chicago. I could have just stayed there if all I’m going to be is a fluff writer. Then I wouldn’t know about my parents. I could have at least been on a second date with that guy from the sports section but instead I left, came back home, found out my home has been a lie for who knows how long and to be stuck in the exact same spot I didn’t want to be in, in the first place.” She had started to cry again and Charlie looked at a total loss.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Jack murmured, rolling his eyes before making his way over to Katherine. 

“Give me the pillow,” he said as he gently pried it away from her grasp. “Now give me your hands.” He held out his hands which she reluctantly took.

“Where are we going?” She asked as he pulled her up.

“To get ya cleaned up first.” He replied, leading her to the bathroom. 

Mascara tears stained her cheeks. She startled at the sight of herself. She didn’t realize she had looked such a mess. “Thank you.” She mumbled as Jack handed her a washcloth.

He gave her a charming grin and went to stand outside to wait for her. Besides he had someone to text so they would be prepared for their arrival. Not five minutes later, Katherine reappeared. The only evidence of her crying was the slight puffiness still around her eyes. “So, where are we going?”

“To the reason writing fluff pieces in New York is gonna be different than writing fluff pieces in Chicago.”

They made it to just before the subway station before Katherine asked again. “So where, exactly are you taking me?” 

Jack just shook his head. She was an impatient one, wasn’t she? “To the best theatre Off Broadway has to offer. Irving Hall. Where I got my start.” He hoped that this would give her enough of an answer that she wouldn’t start the dreaded are we there yet game.

“Are you an actor?” She quirked her eyebrow up.

That made him laugh. “No, I’s a set designer.”

“What shows have you designed for? Would I have seen any?” That had certainly piqued her curiosity. She wanted to know more. Out of her three new roommates, Jack had been the one she wanted to learn the most about. She stayed away from Tony as much as she could even though things were civil between them. Charlie was practically an open book and she had quickly become friends with him. Jack on the other hand was a mystery. 

“Nah, not unless you’ve been to New York since you left for Chicago. The shows I’ve designed for haven’t exactly moved up and out. The one I’m working on now though, well I’m sure it’d be your first assignment. It’s getting some buzz.” He gave a shrug before allowing her to enter into the train car before him. 

“What’s the show called?” She asked, gripping onto the pole to keep her balance. Jack held onto the bar above her, almost using his body as a shield to keep her protected from all of the other people jostling about. 

“Hit List.” 

“Sounds intriguing. I’ll be sure I’m there and give ya the best review.” She gave him a small smile which he returned with ease. 

The rest of the ride was silent between the pair. Katherine too wrapped up in her thoughts about why he would be taking her to where he first started designing sets to hold any conversation. Jack too lost in the way her face was scrunched as she was lost in thought. He could hear Charlie now. “Don’t even think about it Jackie boy. You’re still reeling from the last one.” 

And it was true. He had dated his best friend’s older sister. He even thought things were going really well, until she told him that things were over and she needed to move on to bigger things. He didn’t truly know what that meant besides that it hurt. 

Once they reached Irving Hall, Jack strolled in as if he owned the place. Katherine watched as he greeted each person they passed, asking about Medda’s whereabouts. She stood on the stage, dressed to the nines in a purple ensemble, directing the light technicians where to set the new lights for the latest production. When she heard the audience doors open. She brought a hand up to shield her eyes from the light so she could peer out to see who was coming into her theatre. She didn’t have to see the boy’s face to recognize the boy’s walk. “Jack Kelly, is that you?”

“The one and only.” He gave her a lopsided grin as he made his way up on the stage. 

The two friends hugged as Katherine caught up to them. She still wasn’t entirely sure how this was tied in to her getting a job at The Sun and still being stuck in the entertainment section. “Miss Medda, I’d like you to meet my new roommate, Katherine Plumber. She’ll be your favorite reviewer in The Sun, just as soon as she starts work.”

Katherine held out her hand as she side-eyed Jack. What on earth was he up to?

“It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Plumber. Jack giving you a tour of the theatres you’ll be spending your time in?” She took the younger woman’s hand, giving it a shake in greeting, smiling all the while. 

“Something like that.” Katherine returned Medda’s smile. “This theatre is gorgeous. I look forward to seeing a production here.”

“Katherine’s coming back from Chicago. Best fluff writer there is until she decided to quit and grace us with her presence.” Jack just grinned when Katherine turned a fiery glare towards him. She was not just some fluff writer. And who was he to broadcast her story to the world?

“Something tells me she’s more than that.” Medda chuckled, watching the interaction between the two with a small, knowing smile.

“I am, thank you.” She smiled proudly. At least someone else saw her potential.

“You’ve got some fir in you, darling. So why are you in the entertainment section?” Medda asked causing Katherine to sigh.

“Because that’s where I landed after I graduated. The editors never saw past that. I was always the recent graduate. No way I could write a more interesting article than the reporters who had been there forever.” Katherine rolled her eyes. 

“And what did you do to change their minds?” Medda asked.

“I pitched them my ideas.”

“Why did you never just write the story instead?”

Katherine sputtered as she tried to think of a good answer. Jack stood there, watching, hands stuffed in his pockets with a grin on his face. Medda had done it again and he didn’t even have to ask.

“Honey, if I’ve learned anything in my long years in this business is that you’ve gotta show these boys that you’re worth a lot more than where they’ve stuck ya. No one thought a show girl could ever run a successful theatre. No look where I am! Not only is Irving Hall thriving but it’s a home for all of those who need that extra little push to shine like the star they are.”

Katherine gave the older woman a hug, tears threatening to spill over again. She didn’t trust herself to talk just yet but figured the hug would be plenty enough in this moment. All of her reasons for not just writing her stories were nothing but excuses and if she wanted to she her byline on the front page, it was time to stop making them. “Thank you, Miss Medda.” She said once she thought her voice would be strong enough. “I look forward to seeing the show.” She pulled back with a smile.

“You just let me know when you’re coming and I’ll set up a private box for ya.” Medda smiled, squeezing the younger woman’s shoulders.

“Giver her my seat, Medda. It’s the best in the house, anyways.” Jack suggested.

“That’s where I was thinking.” Medda nodded. 

He just gave a nod, trying not to think about asking to come with her when she does come back to Irving Hall. “Well, we’ll get outta your hair now Medda. C’mon Katherine. I promised the boys we’d pick up a pizza on our way back home.” He motioned with his head towards the stairs off stage. 

Katherine nodded, waving to Medda. “Thanks again!” She exclaimed before following Jack out of the theatre. 

“Why’d you do that for me? We barely even know each other.” She asked once they were a few blocks away. She was in complete awe of the boy walking next to her.

Jack just shrugged. “Would you have listened if I or the other two goofs told you that?” He asked, not really wanting to talk about it.

She played with a thread on the strap of her bag. “Probably not.” Wow, a week in and he had already pegged her stubbornness. 

“Then that’s wy. ‘Sides, Medda says that stuff better than I ever could.” 

It wasn’t until they got back to the apartment that they spoke again. Sure they had ordered the pizza and even argued about who would carry it back but other than that it was an easy silence between them. Before Jack could open the door, Katherine reached out to touch his wrist, the pizza box balanced against her hip. Originally Jack had it but since she had been able to snag a seat on the subway, she took over as pizza protector. 

When Jack looked over at her, she lowered her hand and gave him a wide, grateful smile. “Thank you for today. The Sun won’t know what hit ‘em once I find my story.”

Jack chuckled, returning her smile with a small one of his own. “I can’t wait to see their faces or at least hear about it. Just don’t forget about us little people when you become the next big star reporter.”

Katherine shook her head, smile staying in place. “Me? Forget about you guys? Never.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy comes for a visit during breakfast and a new roommate moves in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, you guys get TWO chapters today. I'm not feeling the greatest so I thought I'd share one of the things that are making this blah day a little better. Thanks for the love on the first chapter so I hope you like these next two!

Katherine had yet to register the world around her. She knew that the boys had gone to get their somewhat new roommate. Well, he was new to her, not new to them. Apparently he was moving back to New York after some time out in California. She just hoped that he was a little nicer than Tony even if near the end they were beginning to get along. She smiled around her coffee cup at how happy the boy had been when his boyfriend, Sean had asked him to move in. With Tony now in Brooklyn, that left the apartment down a roommate and so in came Romeo. 

“Well, good morning, beautiful.” The latest addition entered the kitchen, going straight for the coffee pot.

Katherine snorted. “I now see what Charlie meant to you living up to your name.”   
  
“You’ve been talking about me? Was it anything good?” He asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee before offering to refill Katherine’s.

She shook her head and flashed him a grateful smile. She had been soaking in the warmth, lost in thought so she had barely even taken any sips. 

“You just got here, Romeo. Why don’t you lay off the flirting with our roommate, will ya? You’re not man enough for this one, anyway.” Jack said before yawning as he made his way into the kitchen.

Romeo smacked Jack’s arm as Katherine shuffled out of the way, sitting down at the island just as Charlie joined her. “Why don’t you leave that to the pretty lady to decide? You guys could have warned me a little better, ya know.”

“He already starting to try and butter you up, Kath?” Charlie asked, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl.

“Yup, but nothing’s working so far.” She hid her smirk behind her coffee cup as she noticed the way Jack grinned towards Romeo as if saying, ‘I told you so.’

“How many eggs am I making?” Jack asked as he pulled out the carton out of the fridge. 

A chorus of ‘me’ rang throughout the kitchen before the sound of Katherine’s phone chimed in. “You actually might wanna add in two more, Jack. Darcy’s downstairs.” She took another sip of her coffee and grabbed her phone before making her way to greet her best friend. 

Grabbing the blanket from the back of the couch, she wrapped it around her shoulders and rode the elevator down to the lobby. Darcy was standing a bit awkwardly in the middle trying to take everything in. They were certainly not in the upper east side anymore. 

She had to laugh when she saw her friend. “You look like you just landed in Oz. You know this is a lot better than my place in Chicago, right?”

“It doesn’t seem like it.” He swiped a finger over one of the tables in the lobby and held it up so she could see the dust. “I mean when was the last time this place was cleaned? Come back and live with me. We’ll find you some place nicer.”

Katherine rolled her eyes and grabbed his wrist, pulling him towards the elevators. “Here I thought Bill was the judgy one. I didn’t even have a lobby in Chicago. You went through an alley to get to the stairs. C’mon, the guys are nice and the loft is too.”

“I’m not judging. I’m worried. We don’t know these people.”

“And I didn’t know you at first either and we turned out just fine.”

Darcy sighed as the elevator dinged, signaling that they had arrived on the fourth floor. “I’m not really worried about that. I mean you haven’t gone missing yet so they’re clearly not gonna kill you.”

She stopped, halfway down the hall to her new apartment door. “Then what are you worried about?”

He stepped in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “I’m worried about your safety, Kath.”

“But you just said.” Her brows furrowed in confusion as she was trying to figure out what her best friend was getting at.

He shook his head. “Not with them. I have it under good authority that your father has hired a PI to locate you, maybe even bring you home.”

Her eyes widened and she shook her head. The only reason why she didn’t step out of Darcy’s grip was because he was holding on to her just tight enough that she wouldn’t run. “No. I’m not going back. That place isn’t my home anymore. He ruined that. I mean his personal assistant Darcy, for a man who prides himself for being so original he went with the most cliche person to have an affair with. How did I not see it coming?”

“Katherine, we’ve been through this a hundred times before. They were wrong for not telling you about the divorce. You need to stop blaming yourself over this. You weren’t the only one who was shocked to hear the news.” He shook his head, not wanting to get into this argument again. “That’s besides the point. You have a PI following you and you’re living with three strangers who I can’t trust to protect you.”

“Well, then good thing you’re here, so you can meet them.” Her shoulders were now set and her eyes were hard with determination. 

“You’re not going to tell them are you? Do they even know that your dad owns The World?” He quirked an eyebrow.

She just shook her head. “They don’t need to know and they don’t need to worry. It’s my problem, not theirs.”

Darcy sighed. “Katherine Pulitzer, you’re gonna be the death of me.”

She smacked him in the chest. “It’s Plumber. You even helped me with the name change, remember.”

“Right, right. Sorry.” He rubbed at the place on his chest where she hit. “Let’s go meet these roommates of yours.”

Walking back into the kitchen, Katherine took her seat back and patted the spot next to her for Darcy to sit. “Darcy, this is Charlie, Jack, and Romeo. Guys, this is Darcy. The one I was staying with until I moved in.” 

Charlie looked around Katherine and waved, his usual large grin lighting up his features. Jack turned around briefly, waving the hand he was holding the spatula with. “Hope you like scrambled eggs.”

“Yeah, thanks. I didn’t realize I was interrupting breakfast.” He turned to Katherine with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re not interrupting anything, sweetheart. Maybe except for my regular heartbeat.” Romeo smirked as he came over with the coffee pot and coffee mug. “Coffee?”

Darcy looked at the other boy warily. He felt as though it was a loaded question. Or was it because he found him cute despite the awful pick up line? Katherine just rolled her eyes and took the cup from Romeo. “Yes, he’d love some.” 

Both boys turned towards Katherine who gave them an incredulous look. “Am I gonna have to pour the coffee too?”

Charlie and Jack laughed. They were really becoming happier with the decision of having Katherine move in. Romeo shook his head and poured the coffee as Katherine got up and patted Darcy’s shoulder.

She came around the island and pulled out the loaf of bread from the cabinet. “How about some toast with our eggs?” She asked Jack as she plugged in the toaster.

“Exactly what I was thinking.” He smiled over at her. “These should be done soon.”

After a few moments of them working side by side, Jack spoke up, well whispered so she would be the only one who heard him. “Where are you and Darcy from? I ain’t never seen two people dress so nice to look at apartments or see a friend.”

The conversation she just had with Darcy replayed in her mind. “We’re both from New York. What’s so wrong with looking nice?”

“Yeah, but what borough?”

She looked up at the ceiling as if it would hold the answers she needed. Why couldn’t he just drop it? “Upper east side.” She mumbled, figuring there was no point in lying about this. It wasn’t like he asked who her father was. 

“Then what the hell are ya doing in lower Manhattan?” He looked at her with wide eyes. She definitely didn’t fit the image he had of the people who lived among the elite. 

She sighed, shoving two more pieces of bread into the toaster. “Because I never liked the attitude of the so called high and mighty. I’d rather work for what I have than have everything given to me on a silver platter. Darcy’s only still there because he’s being groomed to take over when his father steps down.” 

“So he came to make sure you were still living, huh?” 

She laughed a bit. “Yeah, something like that.” She placed the last pieces of toast on the plate and looked up at him. “This isn’t gonna change anything, is it?”

He looked back at her, saw the worry in her eyes and smiled.  “Nah, we’re good, princess.” The smile quickly turned into a smirk. 

Katherine groaned, rolling her eyes. “That’s not going away is it?”

“Nope.” He grinned, distributing the eggs on each plate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have written a small little drabble that connects somethings from this chapter and the next one. It's called Late Night Conversations and you can find it [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17862947). I hope you enjoy!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katherine has a run in with a not so friendly animal despite its name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter of the day. This one's a little longer. Hope you enjoy!

Jack woke with a start, limbs flailing as he tried to sit up as quick as he could. He tossed the throw pillow he was cuddled up to on the couch during his afternoon nap. Crutchie came out from the kitchen, eyes wide, wondering why the door slammed with such force it practically shook the apartment. Romeo rushed out, towel wrapped around his hips, hair wet from his shower. “What the hell was that?” He asked, before he turned his gaze to where the other boys were looking. 

Against the door, sitting on the floor with knees pulled up to her chest, Katherine sat looking disheveled. Her shirt was hanging off her shoulder, hair all out of place, eyes wide and it looked like she so desperately wanted to turn in on herself. Her lips moved as she mumbled something frantic.

“Charlie, make some hot cocoa. Romeo, go get some clothes on.” Jack ordered as he jumped up from his seat and rushed to Katherine’s side. He slowed his steps as he got closer, holding his hands out so he wouldn’t spook her even more. “Hey, Katherine. What happened, huh? I thought you said you were cut out for this side of the city.” He hoped that teasing her a little would help break her out of whatever it was that she was in. 

Her head jerked to where Jack was crouched in front of her. Realizing just how close he was, she brought her knees in closer, bumping her head against the door as she moved back. “Hey, hey, hey. It’s just me. Give me your hands. Let’s get you to the couch. Charlie’s making you some hot cocoa and Romeo’s getting dressed so he don’t bother you.” He said, slowly standing and offering out his hands.

Katherine nodded, lowering her legs at first and then grabbing onto Jack’s outstretched hands. He helped her up and she was soon clinging to him. Something inside him stirred, wanting nothing more than to go out to beat down whatever had spooked this brave girl. 

Once she was seated, he wrapped a blanket around her shoulders just as Charlie came over with the hot chocolate, whip cream stacked high looking like something right out of the coffee shop he worked at to get through school. Jack thanked Charlie and handed the mug to Katherine.

By that time Romeo came out, fully dressed but hair still damp from his shower. Charlie had sat down on the other side of the sectional to give Katherine plenty of space. Romeo chose to sit next to him and Jack set on the table in front of their spooked roommate. “Have we figured out what happened yet?” Romeo asked, watching like the others as Katherine hesitantly brought the mug up to her lips.

Charlie shook his head, turning his focus onto Jack. He was already weary of his friend falling for their newest roommate. Her clinging to him the way she had certainly wasn’t helping either. Even if he thought she was a good person, her coming from the upper east side made him weary. Most of the girls from that neighborhood wouldn’t even bat an eyelash in their direction let alone live with them. She could be up to something, playing a game with the little people to get a laugh. He just didn’t want Jack’s heart to get broken again because then he really may go out to Santa Fe.

“Geese are vicious. I thought Canada was supposed to be nice but their geese are the meanest creatures I’ve ever met.” Katherine whispered to Jack. 

He wanted to laugh so bad but he couldn’t. She was serious and he didn’t want to deal with a mad Katherine, especially when she had a hot beverage in her hand. “So all of this over some geese?” He asked, eyebrow raised. 

Romeo snickered, earning him a glare from Katherine and a nudge from Charlie. She then looked down into the mug. In that moment she looked so small and Jack scooted closer to the edge of the table, hands reaching out for her. Charlie cleared his throat, bringing some awareness to Jack who lowered his hands and sat back a little. “No, well yes, but not all of it.”

She had just finished waving her mother goodbye, watching as the older woman rode off in a cab. They had reconciled mostly from the unspoken of divorce. It was easier to forgive her mother, after all. Kate had tried to get Katherine to move in with her but they had compromised to weekly Saturday lunches.

Ever since Darcy had told her of her father’s PI, she watched her back more often. If her father wanted to talk, he could schedule a meeting at The Sun or wait until she was ready to speak with him. He didn’t have to hire a private investigator. She briefly had the idea to write an article about it but figured the news of the affair had hit him hard enough. 

Following what Gracie Hart, Jennifer Jareau, Laura Croft, and Sarah Conner had taught her, she made her way back to the apartment. She was headed to a show tonight. Jack had been right. Hit List had taken Broadway by storm and tonight, she had been assigned to its press night. 

She was doing a zig zag pattern, using the city’s grid system to the best of her abilities to throw off anyone who would be following her. Even though she knew a PI was out there, she hadn’t seen him but her second turn, she noticed a portly man in a brown suit. She had seen him at the restaurant but there was no way this was just coincidental. 

She needed to get away. 

So with the five seconds left on the crosswalk, Katherine ran. She cut through the park in the hopes that she could get back on track or even ride the subway. As she ran past a family feeding geese, she felt something bump her head. Then there was a tug and a honk and why wouldn’t this goose leave her alone? Katherine flailed her arms about and just kept running. Surely she could out run a goose. 

She let out a cry of relief when she saw her apartment building. She looked over her shoulder, no portly man in a brown suit and no volatile goose. She didn’t feel like waiting for the elevator so up the stairs she went.

Jack reached forward, surprised he didn’t realize it sooner. A chunk of stale bread was tangled in her auburn tresses. “Well, that solves the goose problem.” He held it out for her to see.

“I had bread in my hair?!” She looked at the piece in shock. That must have been what she had felt hit her. 

Romeo was trying his best not to laugh. The picture in his mind of Katherine trying to fend off a goose was just too good. Charlie on the other hand was nervous. Katherine had a PI after her? That wasn’t good for anybody.

“As for the other problem, we’ll figure something out.” Jack reassured, smiling at her.

Katherine nodded, finishing her hot chocolate. “And how do you propose we do that?”

“Well, Darcy said it’s so your dad knows you’re okay and to get you to talk to him, right?” Romeo asked, figuring if he could get good with Katherine, he might have a chance with Darcy.

Katherine nodded, wondering where Romeo was going with his thought or if he even had an idea. 

“So what if you write him a letter?” Crutchie suggested and Jack beamed, forming a more concrete idea.

“Yeah, you just write your old man a letter, tell him that you’re alive and well, to call of the PI and until you’re ready to talk he can read your articles in The Sun.”

Katherine thought this over, went through the pros and cons, and then slowly began to nod her head. “Yeah. Yeah, I think that could work. I’ll go write it now and then have the reporter from The Word who’s gonna be there tonight deliver it. Thanks boys!” She smiled, standing up, ready to start her mission.

“You might want to start by getting ready. That goose really did a number on your hair.” Jack teased her. 

“Oh, shut up.” She shoved at his shoulder as she walked past him to go to her room.

Jack’s cheeky grin turned into a grimace as soon as Charlie knocked his shin with his crutch. “Do I need to remind you of Sarah or would you like me to replay the voicemail I got last night by mistake?” Charlie crossed his arms, giving his best friend a pointed look.

“You got that?” Jack’s voice going about an octave higher as he looked over at Charlie in horror before shaking his head. Nothing was going on between him and Katherine anyway. He cleared his throat and returned to his normal voice. “You know what? Nevermind. Kath and I are just friends. You don’t have to worry about me, Charlie. I can take care of myself.”

With that Jack stood, going to his room. He needed to start getting ready himself anyway. Romeo clasped Charlie’s shoulder, giving it a little shake. “Will ya let up, man” Things are fine. You know she’s gotta help up out next month at Davey’s wedding so lay off your whole keeping them apart crusade or he’s not gonna agree to our plan.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “You mean your plan, Mr. I’d Rather Hit On The Bridal Party Than Help My Friend From Total Heartbreak.”

“Look, I get that you and Jack are basically brothers but you can’t baby him when it comes to heartbreak. We gotta get him back out there and if him befriending Katherine is gonna help him then let him. Besides, you said yourself when I moved back in she’s a cool girl. So go back to grading those spelling tests and I’m gonna go see that movie Darcy was talking about.” Romeo stood, going to put on his shoes. 

Charlie sighed, getting up from the couch. He guessed Romeo was right. Didn’t mean he couldn’t still watch his best friend’s back. 

“Just get this to him, please.” Katherine asked the critic from her father’s paper again.

“Fine but if I get fired.” He warned taking the proffered envelope. 

“Stick it in his mail and he’ll be none the wiser.”

The reporter rolled his eyes and walked off. “Thank you!” Katherine called out with a wave.

“Well, that seemed to have gone well.” Jack said coming up behind her, two flutes of champagne in his hands.

She smiled out to the room before returning to her neutral features as she turned to face him. “It’s gonna get to him, that’s all that matters.” She added a shrug for good measure. “Is that for me?”

Jack smiled and offered her one. “I still can’t believe you’re actually a Pulitzer.” He chuckled. 

“And I can’t believe you were one of his cartoonists. How’d you go from the newspaper to Broadway?”

“I liked Medda more than your father.”

Katherine snorted. “Fair point.” 

They sipped on their champagne and watched the press and everyone from the show mingle. Katherine was trying to figure out how to give him a compliment, to say something about the show that wouldn’t give away her review. It reminded her a bit of a modern day Moulin Rouge. It was beautiful and it made her cry. She had looked up his previous shows under the guise of research but his set for this show was simple compared to the others and it fit so beautifully. “Great job, by the way. Congratulations to everyone involved, really.” 

Jack looked over at her, a small smile on his lips. “Your review going to follow those words or are ya just being nice to me?” He teased.

She smirked up at him and set her fluke down. “Guess you’ll just have to see then, won’t you?”

He laughed as he watched her leave. “Yeah, I guess so.” He said into his fluke as she walked out the door.

Come midnight, the reviews were posted. He knew The Times was far more important but he went to read The Sun’s post. “Jack Kelly’s simple set enhanced the beautifully heartbreaking story by giving the audience just enough before letting their imagination take over.” Jack grinned down at his phone. He could have gotten millions of rave reviews tonight but this one was the only one that mattered.

It was close to one by the time he got home. He knocked lightly on Katherine’s door before opening it just enough so he could peer in. Despite her room being bathed only in the street lights, he could make out her sleeping form, curled up under her blankets, back to the door. “Thank you, Katherine.” He whispered, knowing he wouldn’t have the courage to tell her if she had been awake.

He closed the door behind him, unaware that Katherine had been pretending to be asleep. She had to know what he thought even if she wouldn’t admit that out loud. With a smile on their faces, they both snuggled down deep into their blankets and fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hit List is a nod to Jeremy Jordan's character in the TV Show SMASH. I felt like I should have mentioned that in the first chapter so I'm mentioning it now. 
> 
> I've written some drabbles for in between some chapters. There's a Jack x Katherine one called [Late Night Conversations](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17862947) and one with Joe Pulitzer called [The Letter](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17863013). I hope you enjoy!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a wedding and some shenanigans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the last chapter that had some New Girl inspiration. I also decided against chopping this in half so you get the full wedding goodness. Thanks for all the love already! I hope enjoy this next chapter. I can't wait to see what you think!

“So you want me to go to a stranger’s wedding as Jack’s fake girlfriend so you two don’t have to spend your time being babysitter?” Katherine asked, arms crossed, an eyebrow raised as she looked at the two boys standing in front of her. 

Charlie pushed Romeo back a little bit so he could be front and center. He knew having Romeo explain this would be a bad idea, yet he let the other boy continue on explaining things. “It’s not like that, Kath.”

“Then what is it like?” Katherine interrupted causing Charlie to sigh even if he felt like he should have expected something like that from the woman sitting in front of him. 

“Believe it or not, Jack has been working through some heartbreak over the last six months. He and Sarah were dating for about four years when she decided to call it quits. Sarah is Davey’s older sister and the only reason why you haven’t met Davey is ‘cause he’s been so busy with work and planning this wedding that even we haven’t seen ‘im. So she’s gonna be there and we can’t keep Sarah away by ourselves so we need your help.” He came over and sat next to her on her bed, eyes wide and pleading like a puppy’s. “You don’t even have to act super couplely. Just hold hands, maybe share a dance or two. Or do you really want to watch nothing but westerns and have paint everywhere? And I mean everywhere. Your bedroom isn’t even safe.” 

Katherine looked between Charlie and Romeo, not quite believing what Charlie had said. Romeo nodded when he caught Katherine’s gaze. When Jack got upset, it was not pretty. “Your bedroom is definitely not safe since yours is the one with the fire escape.” He added, hoping that he and Charlie could scare her just enough to get her to agree. 

She moved off her bed and made her way over to the window. She peered out at the fire escape landing and sure enough she saw various dried paint splatters along the metal. She took a deep breath and turned back around. “Fine, I’ll do it, but each of you have to make me breakfast and lunch for an entire week. So I suggest you two figure out who’s better at what and it cannot just be money either. Home cooked meals from the both of you.”

Charlie stood, turning to face Katherine. “You make a hard bargain Ms. Plumber but you got yourself a deal.” He spit in his hand and extended it out to her.

Her nose wrinkled in disgust but it was clear that this was how they did things especially after Romeo copied the act. Well, at least it wasn’t signing with their blood. Katherine sighed before spitting into her own hand and shaking both of theirs. 

The day of the wedding was upon them. Katherine flitted about the apartment, offering to do anything but actually get ready. She didn’t know why but this whole thing made her nervous. After a phone call with Darcy, she looked herself in the mirror, told herself she was Kate Davis’ daughter and that she could mingle like the best of them. That small pep talk got her hair and makeup done but now she stood, staring at her closet as if the perfect dress would just jump out at her. 

“If you didn’t want to go, princess, you could have just said no.” Jack said, walking into Katherine’s room and taking in how she was still dressed in her robe. He had knocked before making his way in but clearly she hadn’t heard it because he was sure she wouldn’t have jumped at the sound of his voice. 

She turned around and shook her head. “No, it’s not that. I just don’t know what dress to wear? Do I match you? Do I wear a long one or a short one? What are the wedding party colors? Cause I definitely don’t want to match those.”

Jack sighed and sat on the edge of her bed. Were things really that difficult? He was pretty sure that no matter what she wore, she’d be beautiful. “Alright, what are the options?”

That made her eyes light up as she hurried into her closet. It made him wonder why she was so nervous, yet it put him at ease because if he had to spend time focusing on her then it was less time he was focusing on his own nerves. Then again focusing on her proved to be dangerous. 

She had reappeared in a green dress which he quickly declined after commenting on how it made her look like a lime. Then she came out in an orange dress, feeling a little more confident about it. Jack rolled his eyes. “I’m not taking someone that looks like a fruit to this wedding.”

Katherine let out a huff and went back into her closet. That was a no on the purple one, he’d say she’d look like a grape. “What about these?” She came out holding up a black dress and a gray dress that had a pink color blocked stripe at the bottom of the skirt.

“Davey’s wearing a gray suit and you really think black is a good choice for a wedding?” He quirked his eyebrow up. 

She looked over at the little black dress she had and groaned in frustration as she stormed back into her closet. After a few moments of hearing hangers slide against the hanging rod, she reappeared in a blue ombre dress that had a pattern imprinted on it. Gold pumps adorned her feet, and her hands were hidden by the pockets the dress had. “Now I know we’ll be sort of matching but the blues are two totally different shades…” She began but then she saw Jack’s face. A small smirk played on her lips as she took notice of the speechless Jack, a sight she wasn’t too used to seeing. 

“Will you two come on, we’re going to be late.” Romeo halted in his tracks in barging into Katherine’s room. His eyes widened at the sight of Katherine. “I think that’s the dress. What’d ya think Jack?”

Jack blinked a few times before nodding his head. “Yeah, yeah, that’s the one. Now let’s go before Charlie comes in here whacking us all with his crutch to get a move on.” 

Romeo nodded, turning to leave as Jack stood from the bed. He offered out his arm, which Katherine took and off they went.

Katherine had arranged for a rental car since the venue was in Millbrook. The boys made a fuss but she shut them down about how it was about as much as getting an uber there. She even promised to be the designated driver and they finally agreed. Once she parked, Charlie and Romeo made their way to see who of their crew had arrived already. Katherine was set to follow, pretty excited to see Tony again but was stopped by Jack.

Jack waited until Charlie and Romeo were far enough away, knowing his two friends had been worried about today which was the whole reason why Katherine was even here. He reached out and grabbed her wrist before she could get too far. She spun around, a silent question in her eyes as she looked at him. He looked around one more time to make sure no one saw him speaking with her so candidly. He was meant to be the confident leader of the bunch after all. “I don’t know if I can actually do this.” He whispered. 

Katherine gave him a reassuring smile and stepped closer to him. She began straightening his tie and flattening out his collar and the lapels of his suit jacket. “You are here for your best friend. To support him and his soon to be bride. You are here to see friends you haven’t seen in a long time and you’ve got one more ace up your sleeve.”

He quirked an eyebrow up. “Oh, yeah, and what’s that?”

“Me,” she smiled up at him. “I’ll be your get away driver if you really need it.” She halfway joked.

That caused him to chuckle. He let out a deep breath as he nodded. He could get through this. “C’mon then ace, you gotta meet the fellas before this thing starts.” He walked forward a little bit before offering her his hand. She took the few final steps to catch up with him, sliding her hand into his. The pair continued walking to where the rest of the Lodging House crew were standing as if it was the most natural thing in the world for them, doing things together. 

Katherine felt like she hadn’t laughed like this in a long time. Her sides ached and her cheeks hurt from laughing at all of the stories Jack and his friends told. She almost wished she would have met them sooner. Then all laughing stopped and Jack took ahold of her hand again. A brunette dressed in a coral dress had made her way into their circle. “Hey, Jack.” She gave him a soft smile, one that still made his heart flutter.

“Sarah.” He forced a grin and Katherine thought her fingers were going to be squeezed off. 

“Oh, my stars, so you’re Sarah.” Katherine’s tone took on a light, airy sound, one she hadn’t used in ages. She didn’t even know why her voice took on that quality and then she remembered the lesson her mother taught her about being the best hostess even if a person attending was not someone you particularly liked. “My name’s Katherine, and well, I’m Jack’s new girl for coming up on three months next Tuesday.” She stepped forward, not losing contact with Jack and holding out her free hand. 

The whole group was looking at Katherine as if she had three heads. “Uh, nice to meet you, Katherine.” Sarah shook the other woman’s hand.

Jack cleared his throat. “Well, princess, we should probably go find a seat.” 

Katherine nodded. “You’re absolutely right.” She then began to lead him through the crowd to a seat on the groom’s side. 

“What on earth was that?” Jack looked at her, eyes still wide, not believing what just happened. 

Katherine looked mortified. “Oh, my god, I’m becoming my mother.”

She turned to look at them and when they finally took in each other’s expressions they burst into laughter, Katherine leaning her head on his shoulder as they laughed. “I think I deserve at least one drink for that.” She said through her giggling.

Jack nodded. “Okay, I’ll give you that one.

She then took note how Sarah gave Jack a longing glance as she walked up to the first row to take her seat. “You know, surprising enough, I think she’s actually jealous.”

He glanced towards where Sarah was sitting, shocked. “Really?”

Before they could discuss it any further, the ceremony began. 

“She’s coming over here, could you go get us more drinks?” Jack asked, spotting Sarah making her way over from the table she had been sitting at. 

Katherine shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Jack.”  

He gave her hand a squeeze. “I’ll be fine, Kath.” 

She looked at him for a moment before nodding her head, getting up to go get them something to drink. “Well, hey there, Tony.” She smiled, seeing the former roommate.

“You know I was shocked to see you here but I see what the fellas did to ya.” He laughed, turning to face her. 

“I got breakfast and lunch out of ‘em so no hard feelings.” She grinned.

“Well, damn, Katherine, you’re smarter than ya look.” 

Sean came up and nudged Tony in the side. “Be nice. I think you said a few days after you left that you kind of missed her.”

Katherine placed a hand over her heart and smiled up at the taller boy. “Anthony Higgins, you missed me? I’m flattered.”

Tony rolled his eyes and handed the drink he had poured for Sean to him. “Don’t let it get to your head, doll. I said I missed the fellas too.” 

They all laughed until Katherine noticed Jack and Sarah walking off hand in hand, looking rather cozy. “I hate to cut this reunion short, but I should probably go try and get him back.” She moved to set the drinks back down but Sean placed a hand on her shoulder.

“He’ll be fine, Katherine. I want to get to know the person who apparently out stubborn my Race.” He chuckled, handing her back the drinks. “Charlie’s just over protective.” 

She let out a sigh, figuring it wouldn’t be all that great to cause a scene at a wedding to a person she only briefly met as they mingled about each of the tables thanking everyone for coming. “If I get paint in my room…”

“I’ll come personally clean it.” Sean promised, interrupting her threat.

Jack had revealed that Katherine was actually just a roommate when he felt it pretty obvious that Sarah was in fact jealous. She continued to flirt with him as they caught up, congratulating him on his latest show. Then she suggested them going to the photo booth. Being in so close proximity to her was intoxicating. Maybe, just maybe they could give this a shot again. 

He opened his mouth just as her phone rang and she said something that shattered all the hope their short time together had brought up. “Oh, I’ve got to take this, it’s my boyfriend. Meet ya back out there?”

All he could do was nod before watching her leave. He stepped out of the photo booth and took out the small strip that held the four different photos they took. He look at each one, dragging his finger longingly along the strip before ripping it in half and throwing it away. Jack looked out to the room, trying to find Katherine. He was ready to go. Charlie and Romeo could get their own rides home and it looked as though they would. Good for them, he thought. Just because he wasn’t lucky in the love department didn’t mean he wouldn’t be happy for his friends.

He finally found Katherine. She was laughing at something Les had said as they danced together. He didn’t want to interrupt that. So he turned around and went back to the rental car. He would wait for her or for the whole group to be done. Either way, he would wait in this car, away from everyone until someone was ready to go home. 

He went to open the door but the door handle just bounced back. He tried again and again but to no avail. His one escape was locked and he didn’t have the keys. He shouted in frustration and kicked the tire. He let out a huff, at the realization he had to go back inside and hit the passenger side window. The car alarm blared into the night, mixing with the low thrum of the music coming from inside. Jack groaned again and just sank to the ground.  

After the song ended, Katherine excused herself from the dancefloor. She began to look for any sign of Jack or Sarah. They had, had enough time together and it was maybe even time for Jack to take a break. Jack was currently no where to be found but she located Sarah over by the dessert table. “Hey, do you know where Jack is?” 

Sarah looked towards Katherine, licking off some icing from her finger. “You can cut the act. He told me you guys were just roommates.” 

Katherine just stared at the other woman. How did that even answer her question? “Okay, great. So where is he?”

“I haven’t seen him since I took a call from my boyfriend.” Sarah shrugged, taking a bite of the cupcake she just picked out. 

“You have a boyfriend?” Katherine’s eyes widened and her heartbeat sped up. She needed to find Jack and fast. 

Sarah nodded. “Yeah, I just wanted to catch up with him. See how he’s been.”

Katherine narrowed her eyes at the other woman. She could easily point out all the wrong Sarah had done and how Jack most certainly didn’t view their conversation as them just catching up. She needed to find Jack though so she didn’t need to waste anymore precious time. “Well, then I hope you live a long and happy life, Sarah.” Her voice was ice cold before she spun around and marched out of the building.

In the distance, she saw flashing lights but didn’t hear the steady beeping that usually paired with a car alarm. Something told her to go near it though, so that’s what she did. As she got closer she realized that the lights were coming from the car she rented. She picked up her pace and when she finally got to the row she parked on, she noticed a figure sitting against the side of the car. 

Her heart broke at the sight of the dejected Jack Kelly. She pulled the keys out of her pocket and stopped the alarm, unlocking it in the process. The sound startled a half asleep Jack, and he looked towards Katherine. 

“Jack, why didn’t you come get me?” She asked, stepping closer to him, lowering herself down to sit next to him. 

“Cause you were having fun with Les and I didn’t wanna wait in there any longer.” He looked at her briefly, not wanting to think about how she looked like an angel coming to save him. The glow from the lights at the venue casted the perfect back lighting for her not to even mention how it mixed with the moon. He turned his attention forward and started picking at the grass instead.

Katherine sighed. “You still could have come get me.” 

A few moments of silence passed between them before Jack spoke up. “She had a boyfriend, Ace. She was jealous of you and me and even flirted with me. I shouldn’t have asked you to go get us drinks.” His voice was quiet, as if not being loud with his comment would make him less vulnerable. 

She scooted closer to him, raising her arm up so she could wrap it around his shoulders. With her free hand, she took his that was resting in between them and gave it a small squeeze. His head came to rest on her shoulder as she just held him, offering up all the comfort she could. “Listen to me, Jack Kelly, what she did in there to you was not right. It’s all kinds of wrong actually but that is all on her, not on you. This is her loss, not yours. You deserve so much better, Jack, so, so much better. You’re gonna find yourself a girl that thinks you hang up the stars and sees how smart, talented, brave, and kind you are. She’s gonna love you with all of her being and she would never let you go.” 

Katherine lowered her head and kissed the top of his without even giving it a second thought. “Now let’s get outta here, huh? I’ll make hot chocolate and you can finally show me that Sundance Kid movie.” 

Jack sat up with a gasp. “It is not just that Sundance Kid movie.”

Before he could go on a rant about one of his favorite movies, she stood up. “Well get in the car and you can show me why it’s so great.” She reached out her hands and helped him up.

They most definitely didn’t have hot chocolate when they got back to the apartment. Jack pulled out the bottle he claimed to be his twin and the two played a drinking game while watching his favorite movie. Between Jack taking extra sips and all of the gunshots and explosions, they both were more than a little drunk. 

At the end of the movie, Katherine tried to regain her wits about her. She wasn’t as far gone as Jack but she was definitely not sober either. She stood up, focused on working to regain her balance and then helped Jack up off the couch. His arm was draped across her shoulders as her arm was wrapped around his torso. 

She was able to get him into his bedroom and to his bedside, getting him into bed, however was a different story. She was just glad they both had decided to change before watching the movie. She was just about to tell him that she wasn’t going to tuck him in when he pressed his index finger to her lips. “Shush up a minute, princess, I just wanna thank ya.” He lowered his head, giving into an urge he’s wanted to do practically since he’s met her. 

Katherine stepped back though. Her words may be slurred but she wasn’t that far gone. She wasn’t going to be just the girl who made Sarah go away. She wasn’t going to be the rebound. “Not like this.” She whispered, shaking her head as she looked into his stormy hazel eyes as he processed one more rejection this evening. 

He nodded, grasping onto what her words meant, or at least trying to in his drunken fog. “Will you at least stay?” He asked, plopping down on his bed, eyes drooping. There were maybe a few more seconds before he was out like a light. 

She chewed on her bottom lip, thinking it over. She then sighed and nodded, going over to close his bedroom door. He smiled as he got himself more under the covers, waiting for Katherine to join him.

They laid side by side for awhile, looking up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what was going on. The need for sleep and the warm, fuzzy feelings they were feeling pulling them further and further under the sandman’s spell. Soon comfort out weighed their need to keep boundaries between them. Katherine shifted, turning on her side, tucking her head under his chin and using his chest as her pillow. Jack shifted, accommodating his new blanket, draping his arms around her. Neither of them realized when they finally fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For their outfits, I used what everyone wore for the Newsies Recording Premiere Red Carpet. Everyone looked so good so I suggest you go look it up but I figured I'd be nice and leave ya with a link to everyone's [favorite couple](https://imaging.broadway.com/images/custom/w1200/87908-10.jpg). Hope you enjoyed and thanks again for all of the love!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after. And Katherine's finally got herself a story!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Usually I have a weekly update schedule that I try to follow but apparently with this story I'm going along with whenever I finish a chapter I immediately post. Maybe once I get this story out of my system, I can get back to my other works in progress. Thanks so much for all the love so far and I can't wait to hear what you think!

Katherine awoke with a yawn and a stretch when she realized something was weighing her down a bit more than usual. Her tank top had been bunched up to under her breast, exposing the whole expanse of her stomach. A feeling of warmth and a small pressure along her spine made her figure she had curled up against one of her pillows. Tingles prickled against her skin as she wiggled her fingers. She moved her leg, her thigh moving against what she thought was bunch up fabric until she heard a low moan and felt the vibrations against her chest. 

Her eyes flew open and she looked down. There, laying on top of her was Jack Kelly. His shirt was off and all she felt was a mixture of the cotton of his pajama pants and his skin. Somehow his pant legs had ridden up so they were more like shorts. The small pressure on her back was his hand where his arm was wrapped around her. Then she felt the small pounding in her head and how dry her mouth felt. What on earth happened last night?

Memories began flitting back. The Wedding, finding Jack by the car, watching that movie, drinking...a lot, Jack almost kissing her. Her eyes widened even more. Did they? No, she rejected him. Then how the hell did she wind up with Jack Kelly on top of her and her tank top nearly off?

She needed to get out of there. Away from his warmth and the feel of his weight against her. First a leg and then an arm but then she was pulled back and he was nuzzling her neck. “Mmm, don’t go yet, Sarah.” 

That’s it. She needed to go and she needed to go now. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath to keep the sound of her heart cracking far, far away from her consciousness. She pulled Jack’s arms away from her and scrambled out of his bed. 

“Hey, where ya…” His words trailed off as he saw that what was in his dreams was certainly not his reality. “Oh, shit.” He whispered as Katherine slammed his door shut. 

Jack groaned flopping back into bed. Draping an arm over his eyes, he took a few deep breaths as he tried to remember what all had happened last night. Did he just ruin his and Katherine’s budding friendship? She had quickly become one of his favorite people and he had mucked it all up now. Or, or maybe she just really had to pee? She wasn’t running away because he had called her his ex’s name. He could fix this right?

By the time Jack emerged from his room, Katherine was sitting on the couch, curled underneath a blanket as she ate a bowl of cereal. He kept his eyes down as he made his way into the kitchen. On the island counter was a glass of water and the bottle of pain killers. He smiled softly. Maybe there was hope for them yet. 

Act like normal. Act like normal. Act like normal. She kept telling herself as Jack joined her on the couch. She had collected herself in the shower, coming to the conclusion that it would be too difficult to distance herself from him. She knew he was upset over Sarah. He wasn’t even awake stuck between dreamland and reality. She should just keep things normal between them and not think about how much it hurt having him call her Sarah when he tried to kiss her the night before. 

“Are the other two hooligans still asleep or have they not returned yet?” Jack asked in between bites of his breakfast.

“Haven’t returned yet.” She answered, keeping her focus on the movie she had found on tv.

He nodded, figuring out if he had seen this movie before or not. The next commercial break, she stood, going to set her bowl in the sink. He followed behind her, figuring it was now or never to talk through what had happened earlier in the morning. “Hey, can we talk?”

Katherine moved to the side so he could rinse his bowl out. She gave a shrug before putting the things she left out back in their rightful spots. “There’s nothing to talk about. We got back from the wedding, watch a movie, and got so drunk we fell into bed together. My bladder chose the wrong time to yell at me and then now we’re here.” She really hoped that her explanation didn’t sound rehearsed. It was the half truth she came up with to cope with all that happened. It was something she could live with and she hoped he could too.

“Fell into bed together?” Jack quirked his eyebrow up.

She nodded. “Yeah. I pushed you down and you pulled me with you. I was too tired to get up and walk across the hall.” She reached out and placed a hand on his bicep. “We’re good, Jack, honest.” She gave him the best reassuring smile she could muster. 

He scanned her face, wanting to make sure that she wasn’t keeping anything from him. The moments of silence between them felt like lifetimes but he finally smiled at her. Whatever he was looking for, he found. “Thanks again for last night.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s what friends are for.” She brushed off his gratitude as she made her way back to the couch. The movie was coming back on and even though she had seen it plenty of times before, she didn’t want to miss one second of it.

Katherine jolted at the sound of her desk phone ringing. No one usually ever called her on this phone. If someone needed her, they sent her a text, an email, or even an instant message through the interoffice IM system. “Thank you for calling the entertainment section of The Sun. This is Katherine Plumber. How may I help you?” 

“Kath, it’s me, Bill. Meet at the Alice in Wonderland statue at Central Park in thirty minutes. Bring a notebook.” He then hung up, leaving Katherine to stare at the handset in curiosity. 

She found her friend, leaning up against the mushroom that Alice sat upon. Once close enough she dragged him over to a bench. “What on earth is going on, junior? And this better not be some scheme of yours to get your latest flavor of the week.”

Bill grimaced at the use of junior. Maybe he should have told her a little more information on the phone or maybe have just called her on her cell but he couldn’t trust that right now. “No, Kath, it’s not that. This is serious. I mean big news, huge and you’re the only one that I trust to look into this especially since Darcy thinks I’ve gone down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole.” He chuckled at his unplanned joke.

Katherine rolled her eyes. “Well, are you?”

He shook his head. “No. I know you’re trying to get out of the entertainment pages and this story will definitely do just that.” He motioned towards the notebook in her hand, wanting her to open it up and start taking notes.

She sighed and flipped it open to the next clean page. “What is it Bill? And I swear if this is some kind of sick joke…”

“It’s not! I promise! I’m glad you’re happy now. Wish I had the same kind of guts.”

She rolled her eyes, not wanting to get into this argument with Bill. He frustrated her to no end sometimes but at the end of the day, he was always looking out for her. “So, what’s this big news?”

“Someone’s hacking into the big wig’s bank accounts and donating the money to charities. They hit Trump first, then Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and now me. Well, not me, me. Just my family, my pops really.”

Katherine scribbled down the names and the incident. “And how to you know that these are all connected?” 

“Cause the police said so. Plus you know how the folks talk. I know you’ll find out who’s doing this.”

“You don’t trust the police to do their job?” 

Bill shook his head. “I mean they’ll figure it out but you’ve always been a real Nancy Drew, Kath. You’ll probably figure it out before they do. Besides, you’re the only one I trust with the story.” 

“So I’ll get the exclusive?”

“At least on the Hearst’s part.” He then handed over a manilla folder. “Here’s all the information you might need.”

She took the file from him and looked over her notes. “Well, it seems like we’ve got a modern day Robin Hood to catch.” She then grinned and jumped up from her seat. “Modern day Robin Hood!” She then squealed. “Oh, I’m a genius!” She then gave Bill a hug. “Don’t worry. I’ll figure this out. I mean, I’ve got to right? You can count on me Bill Hearst.” She squealed once more before bounding off to her office.

“Oh, hey Katherine. I wasn’t expecting you home already.” Charlie smiled as he rounded the corner to head to his room. It was right next to the kitchen and dining area, where Katherine currently had all of her notes spread out across the table. He was usually the first one home with him working at one of the schools that let out earlier. So he was surprised to see Katherine at home.

She briefly lifted her head to give him a smile and a small wave before focusing back on the articles in front of her. “Sorry if I scared ya. I went to a documentary screening this afternoon and wasn’t needed back at the office so I figured why not.” 

“Makes sense.” He tossed his bag into his room before making himself a snack. “So what are you working on over there? That looks bigger than just a review for a new documentary.”

Katherine turned, a wide grin lighting up her features. “I’m working on the story that could finally break me out of the show review beat.”

“Oh, yeah, and what’s that?” He asked, settling into one of the stools at the island. 

“There’s a modern day Robin Hood out there and I’m gonna figure out who he is!” She squealed, kicking her legs a bit.

Charlie choked a little on his latest sip but waved off her concern by saying how it went down the wrong pipe. He cleared his throat and looked back over to her. “You don’t want him caught? Just to know who he is?” 

She nodded. “Well, yeah. I mean my friend Bill wants him caught but as long as my trust fund isn’t touched and he doesn’t hurt anyone then I say he can take as much as he wants. The amount he’s taking right now doesn’t even but a dent into how much these goons make. Besides it’s going to charities like the Boys and Girls Club, Graham Windham, St. Jude’s, and Children’s Miracle Network.”

“As long as your trust fund isn’t touched?” He raised his eyebrow, teasing her. 

“Yeah. That’s my rainy day fund. I was planning on using it to pay rent until I found a job. Then if it lasts long enough I’ll offer it to my kids. If they don’t want it then when I die it’ll go to charity or help pay off any expenses I may accumulate or both.” 

“Sounds like you have everything planned out then.” 

Katherine sighed, resting her head on her arms that were draped over the back of her chair. “Oh, c’mon, Charlie. I know ever since you found out I was from the upper east side things shifted between us but I’m not a bad guy. I want to help. I want to change the world. It’s why I want to be a reporter. It’s the closest thing we’ve got to superheroes.”

“I’d like to think this Robin Hood fella is a superhero.” Charlie mumbled.

“If he wasn’t committing a crime while doing so then maybe. He’s more like a silent vigilante.”

“Hey, that one’s good. You might want to use that one. Silent vigilante.” Charlie offered. She was right, though. He needed to lighten up on her. She had shown that she was trustworthy. “Would you mind some working company? I’ve got some math tests I need to grade…” He trailed off, wondering if she would allow him to, hoping she would forgive him of just wanting to protect his family from a new person in their life. 

She sat up a little straighter and smiled over at him. “Yeah, I’d love some.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things are mended while others are just starting out.

Things returned back to normal for Jack and Katherine, well almost. There was one major difference. Sure they still talked and joked all the time. They even still hung out together like they used to. She just wasn’t being as physically close as she used to be until the wedding incident. In that area it was like the first week she moved in. 

Jack would catch himself glaring at his other roommates when Katherine would place a hand on their shoulder or nudge them. One night he walked in on her and Charlie sharing a blanket and had to turn right back around to stay in his room, hunger be damned. He had ruined whatever it was between them. He wouldn’t be surprised if she moved out soon.

“I think we might have to look for another roommate soon.” Jack confided in Charlie before bringing his beer bottle up to his lips for a long drink.

“Why do ya think that? Romeo and I aren’t going anywhere and I really don’t think Kath is either.” Charlie looked over at Jack with a raised eyebrow.

“So now you’re her biggest fan?” Jack sneered. Why wasn’t Charlie validating his thoughts?

“I don’t think I’ll ever take that title away from you, Jackie. What’s going on?” Something was bothering his friend. When all Jack did was take another sip of his beer, Charlie sighed. “Look, I know I wasn’t all that fair to her after I found out she’s from the uppity side but she definitely doesn’t act like it and she certainly doesn’t act like we’re some charity case.”

Jack sighed, looking down at the street below. “I think I screwed up Charlie boy. I almost kissed her and then I called her Sarah the next morning.”

“Jack, you didn’t.” Charlie’s eyes widened, his mouth a little open

“Yeah, I did. And she says things are fine but I know things aren’t.”

“Well, how do you know that?”

Jack sighed, finishing off his beer before answering. “It’s gonna sound stupid but she’s not shoving at me or using my shoulder as a pillow on movie night or looping her arm around mine as we walk down the street. There is always at least a foot gap between us and it feels like miles. I shouldn’t have ever tried to kiss her. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

Charlie placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Do you think maybe it’s not because you tried to kiss her and maybe it’s because you called her Sarah?”

Jack looked over to his best friend. He didn’t want to admit that Charlie was right. If he did that then that would mean that there was a possibility that she liked him and he wasn’t sure if he was ready to go down that road just yet. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Ask her about the preview she’s going to this weekend. Maybe that’ll get you two back to being thick as thieves.” Charlie patted Jack’s shoulder and then made his way back inside. 

Unbeknownst to Jack, Katherine was having a very similar conversation with her mother. The conversation had gone from making sure that this Robin Hood hadn’t touched her mother’s accounts to updating Kate on her life. She groaned, resting her head on the table. “I don’t know mom. I think I messed up. I should have just left to go to my room.”

“You know you wouldn’t be having this problem if you had decided to live with me until a more suitable place came along. Now head up, Kitty, we’re in public.” Her mother said, trying to keep her oldest daughter from causing a seen.

Katherine rolled her eyes and sat up. “That’s not exactly helpful, mother.”

Kate sighed. “You have a crush on this boy. So now you’ve got to decide is keeping his friendship worth it or do you need to move on completely.”

Katherine gasped. “I do not have a -” 

Kate just gave one of those ‘mothers know everything looks’ and Katherine closed her mouth, moving to fiddle with her fork. “Okay, fine but I don’t want to leave that apartment. There’s something special about it.”

“Then I think you have your answer.”

Jack looked up from his latest painting at the perfect time. “Hey!” He called out, lowering his music so it’d be more like background noise.

Katherine turned around and waved, walking over to lean in his doorway so they wouldn’t have to shout across the hall. “How was dinner?” He asked her when she got closer.

“It was good. I finally talked my mother into meeting me at Jacobi’s. I brought home some chocolate cake for everyone but if anyone touches my left overs in the fridge, they owe me a lunch.” She warned despite the smile on her face.

Jack knew quite well that the threat wasn’t an empty one. Especially if the two weeks after the wedding were anything to go by. She had Romeo and Charlie making her both breakfast and lunch. “Is your name on it?” He couldn’t help but to tease her.

“Of course it is.” She rolled her eyes to emphasize the silent ‘duh’ at the end of her sentence. “What are you working on?” She then asked, motioning towards the canvas.

“Oh, nothing. Just a mini version of a potential new backdrop for Medda.” He shrugged as he watched her come over to stand behind his shoulder.

She went to go shove at his shoulder but stopped herself about midway. Then her mother’s words came back and she tried once more. It didn’t feel wrong or difficult. It felt like normal. Maybe things would really be fine after all. She just needed to move on from this crush and then everything really would be right as rain. “That’s not nothing. That’s beautiful, Jack.”

Jack had to bite his cheek to keep from smiling. “It’s just a bunch of trees.” 

This time she placed a hand on his shoulder, making him look up at her. “It’s a beautiful bunch of trees. I can picture Bambi running through those trees.” 

He tentatively brought an arm up around her waist. When she didn’t move it or move away he couldn’t hold back anymore. He smiled up at her. “A little birdie told me that you might need a plus one for a preview you’re going to…”

Katherine raised her eyebrow. “Is that so?”

“Mmhmm,” Jack nodded. “So what show are we seeing?” 

“What if I already had a plus one set up?”

He gave her a pointed look. “Who else would you take? Charlie and Romeo won’t give you as nearly the amount of good quotes to use. Your friend Bill doesn’t seem like the type to jump at an opportunity to go to the theatre with ya. And I’m assuming Darcy can’t make it if you’re looking for someone.”

“What would you say if I told you, I asked my father?” She set her free hand on her hip.

“Then I’d say who are you and what have you done with my Katherine?” He shook her a little, chuckling.

Both eyebrows raised at his comment. “Oh really? I’m yours now?”

He nodded, cheeky grin planted firmly on his features. “Guess you should have read the fine print of the lease.”

Katherine rolled her eyes. “You are the most impossible boy,” she leaned in and whispered, “ever.” She then pulled away before those hazel eyes could draw her in and headed back to her room.

“Is that a yes then?” He called after her.

“Be ready by six Saturday evening.” She replied, hanging onto her bedroom door. 

“You do realize that’s like two hours before the show right?” He asked, leaning in the doorway. There was chocolate cake to be had and he was going to get the first slice before his other roommates realized what she had done for them.

“I mean, we don’t have to go eat.” She shrugged, going to close her door. 

“No, no. Dinner sounds nice. I’ll be ready by then.” He reassured her. 

“Good.” She smiled and closed her door. 

Not one minute after, there came a knock on her door. She huffed, lowering her blouse back down and opened the door. There Romeo stood, a plate and mouth filled with chocolate cake. “Uh, you got something there.” She pointed to the right side of her mouth.

He swiped at his left side, mirroring where Katherine had pointed. She smiled and shook her head. “Your other left.” 

Finding the chocolate icing that she was pointing out to him, he grinned, licking his finger clean. “Do you know if Darcy’s doing anything this weekend?”

She rolled her eyes. These two had been doing this dance back and forth ever since she introduced him. Darcy would ask her to relay jokes and stories, even small gifts that he would see and would remind him of the other boy. Romeo would ask what the other was up to, ask about books, shows, and movies Darcy would recommend. She was tired of being the middleman and that would end this week.

“I’m not his keeper, Romeo. You have his number. Text him.”

“Don’t ya know his schedule though?” He wanted to be sure that Darcy was free, that everything was perfect. Guys like Darcy didn’t go out with guys like him.

Katherine sighed. How was she going to get these two together? Two men named after two of the most romantic characters in literature and they were utterly useless in the romance department. “Well what’s your weekend look like?”

“I was hoping for Friday.” He stuffed his face with another bite of cake so he wouldn’t get his hopes up.

“I think he’s busy that day but I’d be happy to keep ya company. We can even go out to eat if you want?” 

He slowly nodded, trying not to show how disappointed he was. Hanging out with Katherine was fun though. She somehow always managed to find the coolest places. Guess it did pay off to work in the entertainment section. “Yeah, just text me the time and place later. You pick. And thanks for the cake, by the way.”

Katherine smiled, nodding her agreement. “Will do and no problem. Night, Romeo!”

She closed her door for the second time that night and got ready for bed. Just before falling asleep she sent Darcy a text.  _ Friday night at 6. You, me. Taco place on 9th and a walk on The High Line. What’d ya say? _

_ I say yes. See ya Friday! _

She grinned at his response, sending the details to Romeo before finally falling asleep.

Darcy arrived first, waiting for Katherine just by the building so he wasn’t in the way of the people walking by. Romeo jogged up to the door, fearful that he was late. He slowed when he noticed Katherine’s friend by the door. “Hey! Kath said you had something tonight. Didn’t realize we were going to the same spot.”

The other boy who was always looked ready for a business meeting waved to his friend’s new roommate, well one of them at least. “Hey! Yeah, Katherine and I made plans to meet here.”

Romeo shook his head. “No, Kath and I had plans to eat tacos and walk along that trail a block or two down.” 

Just then both of their phones went off at the same time. A text from Katherine.  _ Have fun you two. Can’t wait to hear all about it.  _

They looked at each other then before Darcy looked back down at his feet. Romeo rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I mean we are both here, so why not?” Romeo said, hoping that Darcy would say yes.

Darcy was spending time trying to figure out if he should curse his best friend or thank her. He looked up at Romeo’s question and realized he should thank her. Apparently they both had needed a push and well there was no harm in trying. “Yeah, let’s go.” He smiled and held open the door for Romeo. Here was to new romances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how many chapters this will wind up being but we are most definitely trekking right along with the outline I have. I'm thinking a little more than ten. ANYWHO I hope you liked this chapter and although this mysterious Robin Hood is not mentioned this chapter does anyone have any theories on who our silent vigilante is?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is this a date??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait in between chapters. I was gone on a mini vacay last week and while I wrote a good portion of it out, it's just taken me a bit to finish it. I hope you like this last calm chapter before some things get stirred up. Thanks for all the support this story has gotten! It means a lot!

The show was a revival but Katherine couldn’t for the life of her figure out why someone wanted to revive it. The set and costumes were gorgeous. The actors were even doing the best they could with what they had been given. The plot and the music just didn’t mesh well. The drama unfolding felt out of place with the more popular style music. It felt like she should be watching an opera instead of a Broadway musical. 

Jack had long checked out, now focusing his attention on other audience members since he had already filled the pages of his playbill with drawings. He was currently playing a game of how many phones he could see. When he got to fifteen he grew bored and once more turned to Katherine. 

He had done this twice already and twice she had rejected his offer of leaving. This was either going to be third time’s the charm or three strikes and he was out. Well at least until intermission but honestly how could it not be intermission yet? “Katherine?” He whispered, chuckling when he saw in large, looping letters the word again followed by three question marks and underlined three times next to the character’s name that was part narrator, part comic relief. 

“Jack, I already told you, it’s rude to leave in the middle of a performance.” She whispered back, flipping to a new page. 

“But you’re not even enjoying it. We could be doing something ten times more fun than watching this. Don’t you have enough to write your review?”

Katherine sighed. “We’ll go at intermission.” 

That should have been enough for Jack but this show was torture. He couldn’t even properly enjoy the set. He pointed over to the box next to them. “C’mon, ace. That reporter is on his phone and the one next to him is asleep. No one will know.”

She looked over to her fellow reporters and then at the audience. There were a handful that seemed entranced by what was happening on the stage but most were fidgeting. She made one last note about what she observed and then nodded towards Jack. “Okay, let’s go.”

He beamed as he lead them out of the theatre. Once on the street, Katherine placed her notebook and pen into her coat pocket and looked towards Jack. “So, what do you have in mind?”

Jack just smiled and motioned to her as he began walking backwards. “Follow me.”

Katherine gave him a look but followed after him anyway. As they got closer to their destination, she was glad she had worn wedges instead of heels. While it was still difficult to navigate the shore of the lake in Central Park, it would have been an absolute nightmare in the heels she originally contemplated wearing tonight. “Jack, what on earth are you doing?”

His phone light that had help illuminate their path was now being used as a search light. “Trying to find the perfect rock.” He explained, picking one up and looking it over before tossing it back to the ground. 

“I never pegged you as a rock collector.” She said as she continued to watch him in his hunt.

“It’s not for collecting, princess, it’s for skipping.” He picked up another rock, smiling when it was exactly the type he was looking for. 

“Oh.” 

Jack looked over to Katherine, shining his light towards her as she toed at the dirt. “Katherine?”

“Hmm?” She didn’t look up. The ground was far more fascinating. 

“Have you never skipped rocks before?” 

She shook her head, finally looking up at him. There was a moment of disbelief before a grin broke out over his features. “Well, then it’s your lucky day. I happen to be a record holding rock skipper. No one’s been able to beat my five skips.” 

He motioned for her to come closer. “This here is a skipping rock. You want one that’s smooth, round, and flat. You want to hold it like this.” He demonstrated for her before giving her the rock.

She tried to mimic what he had shown her as he came around behind her. “Almost. Like this.” He took her hand in his and showed her. He then placed his free hand on her shoulder and shuffled them around so that their left side was facing the water. “Okay, so it’s kind of like throwing a frisbee. You’ve done that, right?”

Katherine sighed, trying her hardest not to roll her eyes since it seemed to be a crime to not have skipped rocks before. It wasn’t her fault she wasn’t allowed to be near dirt long enough to even look for a proper rock. Although she did suppose it was nice to be this close to Jack. “Yes, I’ve thrown a frisbee.” She may have kept herself from rolling her eyes but it didn’t stop her from sounding indignant. 

This caused Jack to chuckle, a smirk dancing on his lips. “Just making sure, princess.” 

Katherine huffed. “Are you going to teach me or continue to tease me?”

That caused Jack to laugh again. “Alright, alright. Hold your horses, princess.” He brought their arms back and then swung them forward, crossing over Katherine’s body. He did that a couple of times before adding how she should use her wrist.

“Okay, now for real this time.” He brought her arm back and when they got to the prime spot for release, they let go of the rock and watched as it just kerplunked into the water. 

“Maybe we should try it individually.” Jack suggested after a few moments of shared disappointed silence.

They soon began looking for rocks, Katherine every so often holding out one for Jack to inspect. With each no, he would explain why it wouldn’t be good for skipping. Once she had a few good skipping rocks tucked away in her coat pocket, she stood from crouching over. He went over the steps one more time, helping when he needed to before stepping out of her way. 

This time it skipped once before dropping into the lake. Katherine took out another rock from her pocket, more determined to get it to skip more than just once. Jack threw his rock at the same time and it was like they were racing. He wasn’t even watching to see how well his did, especially after Katherine let out a small squeal of excitement when her rock skipped more than once. 

She played with her different variables after watching Jack’s go on for another skip after hers. She tried out different forces, speeds, and flicks of her wrist with each throw until her very last rock. Their rocks had been keeping up. It was the longest skip Katherine had managed the entire evening. Her grin wide as she bounced on her toes in excitement. 

It was then that the unexpected happened. Jack’s rock dropped into the lake but Katherine’s did one more skip before sinking to the bottom. Jack stared in amazement, his mouth opened. Katherine let out a squeal and a little laugh. She had gotten six skips. “Jack! Did you see that?!”

He nodded and turned to look at her. The bit of chagrin that he had been feeling for having been beaten out of his rock skipping record vanished when he saw just how happy she looked. “Yeah, guess you hold the record now. Beginner’s luck.” He teased her a bit, shaking his head.

“Nah, just had a really good teacher.” She smiled back at him, stuffing her hands in her coat pockets. “I gotta say though. This was tons more fun than sitting there and trying not to fall asleep.”

He gave her a cheeky grin. “Aren’t ya glad I made ya leave then?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I guess I am.” She teased him right back. 

“You guess?” He placed a hand over his heart, acting as though her words had hurt him. “You wound me, princess.”

She rolled her eyes. “You sure you’re supposed to be behind the scenes? Those dramatics say otherwise.”

“These dramatics are for friends eyes only. I don’t wanna see nothing about ‘em in the next piece you write on me.” 

She gave a mock salute, giggling. “I won’t let the people know. Promise. Can we go back to the apartment now?”

“You tired of me already?” He asked, moving closer to her so he can help her climb back up the bank. 

“No, I’ve just got a morning meeting and I would like to try to look awake during it.” She laughed, taking his hand as they climbed back up to the main path. 

As the pair walked along, someone followed them in the shadows. Having not seen the man her father had hired to follow her, she had stopped looking over her shoulders. Her father was a sensible man after all and while he had his not so great features, she knew that there was good inside of him.  

The portly man wore an all black suit with a hat pulled down low so the shadow from it would hide his face. The two in front of him were smiling and laughing on their way back home, completely unaware of the fact that they were leading the man both of them so desperately tried to get away from directly to where they now lived. Once they were inside, the man smiled, writing down the address before slinking back into the dark. The boss would certainly be happy that he found his daughter but he would not be happy to know that his daughter was in cahoots with a boy he had previously locked away in The Refuge before the governor shut him down.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to happen.

A bang. A shriek. A pillow being thrown and missing its intended target completely. “Darcy, what the hell are you doing here?” Katherine clutched her sheet to her chest, still trying to get her breathing under control even if the look she gave her best friend could have easily killed him if looks did that sort of thing.

“I spent the night, but that’s besides the point.” He grabbed the pillow from a bewildered Jack and closed the door to Katherine’s room before sitting on his best friend’s bed. “Last night this Robin Hood character robbed me. $2,500 was donated to The Trevor Project in my name.”

“You don’t sound too upset despite your rude entrance.” 

Darcy sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “How am I supposed to be upset about that? It’s a great organization.” He flopped over with a groan, resting his head in her lap. “It’s just that much money coming out of my dad’s account wouldn’t even do any damage. Mine on the other hand, that’s my rent. I’m an editor at a small magazine, far away from The Tribune, one that could have used the talented writer, Katherine Plumber when she moved back to New York but she wanted to do things her way. I don’t have my father’s salary.”

Katherine began running her fingers through his hair. “I’m gonna figure this out, Darcy. I promise and if you need any help around the time bills start needing to be paid, I’d be more than happy to help.” 

“Thanks, Kath. You know you’re the best, right?” He smiled up at her. 

She returned his smile with a smirk. “So I’ve been told.”

They both laughed as Darcy sat up. “Hey, Darce. Why do you think they would have chosen this particular organization?”

Darcy shrugged as he opened her bedroom door. “Maybe because they know I started dating Romeo? You think that could lead to something?”

She hummed in thought, nodding her head. “Yeah, I do. I mean it certainly narrows down the list. Could you write me a list of who knows?”

He nodded. “Yeah, sure. It’s kind of short though.”

Katherine just grinned. “Even better.”

“Well, if it isn’t Mr. Morris.” The portly man that had been following Katherine sneered one afternoon. “Who else is up there corrupting the heiress of The World? Besides Kelly?” He was leaning against the building, arms crossed and just as vile as the day Charlie had met him. 

Charlie tried his best to stand as tall as he could in the presence of the man that had tormented he and his friends for most of their life. “A Pulitzer ain’t living with us. Being inside of the system you used to work for musta really done you in. A Pulitzer in lower Manhattan. Don’t make me laugh, Snyder.”

The older man chuckled. “That’s right, she’s going by Plumber now. You didn’t answer my question though, Morris.”

He was surprised his crutch didn’t fall. Katherine was a Pulitzer? He knew she was from the Upper East Side but a Pulitzer? There was no way. He couldn’t believe it. “I don’t have to anymore. Now leave before I call the cops.” Charlie threatened, trying so hard to remain brave in front of Snyder. 

“Get Miss Pulitzer to go back where she belongs and you won’t ever have to see me again.” Snyder pushed off from the wall and began to walk across the street. 

Charlie didn’t stick around to watch. He went as fast as he could inside. Oh he hoped that Jack was home. They had to get Katherine out of there and fast. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Charlie. What’re you talking about? We can’t kick Kath out. We can’t afford this place without her and I sure as hell ain’t gonna eat the breaking the lease fee.” Jack stared at his best friend, confused. He knew he had his apprehensions to their new roommate before but this was just a whole other level. 

“You mean you’d rather live with a Pulitzer than pay a few hundred? I thought your show was doing well.” Charlie looked back at the man he had considered his brother for most of their lives together incredulously. Did he not remember what Pulitzer did?

“She’s not her father, Charlie. How’d you find out anyway? She finally tell you guys?”

Charlie’s eyes widened. “You knew?! You knew and you didn’t tell me?”

Jack shrugged. “That’s her story to tell. She’s changed her last name and made it very clear she wants nothing to do with him.”

“You are so far gone.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” 

“It means that you are too blind to see that Katherine’s gonna hurt you just like Sarah. No, she’s gonna hurt you worse because at least Sarah didn’t bring around old demons.”

Jack groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What the hell are you talking about, Charlie? And enough with the riddles. Tell me plain.”

Charlie huffed. “Pulitzer hired Warden Snyder to follow Katherine around. He knows where we live now thanks to her. So we either send her back to her old man or we have to deal with whatever consequences those two cook up.”

That name caused Jack to freeze. He didn’t know how this made him feel. The rational side to him was telling him that Katherine didn’t know and that he just needed to talk to her. The emotional side was beginning to see Charlie’s logic and was already planning on how to pack her things before she got back from work. 

“Anyone here?” Katherine called out as she locked the door behind her. “I brought cupcakes from that tasting I had to go to and let me tell you, I will eat all of them if no one is here.”

The boys looked at each other. What were they going to do now? They hadn’t had time to come up with a plan on how to approach her. The one time she didn’t stay at work late of course was the day they were questioning her legitimacy. Jack took a deep breath. They just had to play it cool through the length of eating a cupcake. If they didn’t, she’d go into investigator mode to try and figure out what was wrong and they certainly didn’t want to deal with her when she was like that. 

Jack patted Charlie’s shoulder as he stood from his seat in front of his easel. “Save at least two cause me and Charlie are here!” He called out, trying not to laugh as she let out an over exaggerated disappointed groan.

The cupcakes were huge and looked too pretty to be eaten. Katherine already had a cupcake in her hand. The icing was a pastel orange with a gummy orange slice placed in the middle. The cake itself looked vanilla and she was certainly loving the bite she had just taken. “It tastes just like a creamsicle, oh my god.”

“Where are these from again?” Charlie asked as he looked over the rest of the cupcakes. The cookies and creme one was calling his name.

“This new bakery that just opened up a few blocks from us actually. Which is gonna be super dangerous. The owners are super nice and honestly these are the best cupcakes I think I’ve ever had.” She explained in between mouthfuls. 

“Did they switch you over to the food section?” Jack asked, grabbing the s’mores cupcake. 

She shook her head. “They’re giving me different things so I don’t grow bored. Which is nice and I appreciate it but it’s still not where I want to be.”

“They still not know you’re working on modern day Robin Hood?” Charlie asked, after his bite of cupcake. Jack hadn’t started choking and deep down he knew that Katherine wouldn’t poison their food. She was a bad enough cook as it was, there was no way she’d be able to do something like that even if she could potentially be working with Snyder. The voice inside his head said he was wrong about that too but that wouldn’t stop him from his plan for this evening.

Katherine shook her head. “No, the other reporters in crime have started running stories but I don’t have anything to really add to what’s already been published.” She did have her list though and later that evening she was going out to do some of her own investigating. 

Once she was finished with her cupcake, she headed to her room, fully intending on taking a nap. That was when Jack made his move. He knocked on her open door before entering her room. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“Tell you what?” She turned around to face him after hanging her jacket back up in her closet. 

“That the man following you was Snyder.” 

The confusion she felt grew even more. “Who’s Snyder? How’d you figure that out? Is he following me again?” Her eyes widened. She hadn’t seen anyone this time, hadn’t even known. Was it the same man? 

“I know you’re not dumb, Katherine.” He gave her a pleading look despite his tone being anything but. 

“And I know you’re not dumb, yet here you are acting like an idiot.” Katherine waved her hands about. Her curiosity was growing into frustration. She didn’t know where this all was coming from and she certainly didn’t care for how he was speaking with her.

“You really expect me to believe that you don’t know the man your father worked so closely with in law enforcement?”

She let out a huff. “Contrary to popular belief I do not know all my father did. I was either too young, too busy trying to figure out how to get out from under his thumb, or in Chicago. So no, I do not know this Snyder person. How do you know him?”

“He’s the real reason why I didn’t stick around The World. He’s been after me ever since I was a kid and your father sold me out. I’d been out of the system for years but that didn’t stop Snyder, oh no. I was tossed in a containment cell for the rest of the day. I wasn’t let out until the next morning, with a letter saying I no longer had a job.” His voice was tight, arms were crossed and somewhere along the way his eyes were no longer warm. They were now cold and closed off just like how he had become towards her. She didn’t like it. 

“I was in Chicago when that happened. Remember, I didn’t even know you worked there until you told me. I’m so sorry, Jack. My father had no right to do that and neither did this Snyder.”

“And you didn’t have the right to bring the man who nearly ruined my entire life back into it!” He was acting irrational now, fear starting to control his actions. 

Katherine startled as he yelled at her. Now it seemed like she had two mysteries to get to the bottom of. Jack certainly wasn’t going to be of any help for after he yelled at her, he turned around and went straight to his room, slamming the door behind him. 

She stared at the door, her own anger now beginning to boil over. She couldn’t believe that he would accuse her of such things. He didn’t even listen to her or even remember all that they had shared with each other before this moment. 

Then it hit her. The underlying threat that wasn’t spoken. That’s what pushed her over the edge. There was no way her father’s idiocy was going to make her leave. Just the thought of leaving caused her heart to tighten. She had wasn’t going to leave her new home. She was going to get to the bottom of this. Wait, did she just? Her eyes glistened as she closed her bedroom door and started to get ready for her mission this evening. She had found a home. This loft she shared with three others was her home. Then she thought of Jack and her heart tightened more and she was not going to dwell on those feelings. Home was a place to come back to, not a person like those cheesy romantic comedies she loved so much would have her believe. 

With that thought, she grabbed her bag and marched out the front door, slamming it in determination. The sound echoed throughout the loft. Jack growled a bit. What right did she have to be angry? He flung the freshly dipped paintbrush at the canvas creating a nice splatter pattern. Now to do this for the rest of the night instead of focusing in on how he felt betrayed.

In another room, keys were clacking away as Joseph Pulitzer’s bank account was being hacked into. The computer user’s eyes widened when he saw just how much money was in there. Moving, what he considered to be, a lofty $10,000 into a donation towards Graham Windham. That would show him. If Snyder kept coming around then that number would just go up and become more frequent. Now just to figure out what to do about Katherine. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katherine breaks things and worries other people.

Katherine barely made it three steps outside of the apartment building before Snyder walked up next to her. She stiffened, kept her head down and tried to hurry her pace without full on running. “Now, now, Miss Pulitzer, you don’t have a reason to be scared. I’m a friend of your father’s.”

At that she turned, eyes widening in realization. It was the man that her father had sent after her. Then another wave of realization dawned on her. She did know who this man was. She would never forget that sneer he thought was a smile. It haunted her the entire day after she read the article about his corrupt halfway house. Her heart had broken to hear all the horrible things this man had done to the children he had taken into his care. Right now though, her heart dropped to her stomach, connecting the dots from her and Jack’s conversation to this moment right now. The men she now lived with were boys under this horrible man’s care. 

“Well then you can go tell my father that your services are no longer needed.” They were not going to ruin the home she had found. 

“It don’t work that way, sweetheart. You’ve got to come back where you belong.” 

She sent a glare his way. “I am exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

“Why yes, you are.” Snyder moved to grab ahold of her arm to drag her to his car. In a blink of an eye, Katherine reared back and punched him square in the nose. Blood dripped down and anger flashed in his eyes. She had managed to break it. 

Before he could fully recover, Katherine took off running. She was not about to see how he would retaliate. The way Jack reacted when he thought she had been a spy told her she certainly didn’t want to stick around to find out.

Down the stairs she ran at the nearest subway station. Pushing through the crowd, she jumped onto the first train she could. She didn’t know what train it was, she didn’t care. She would ride it for five stops and then wherever she landed, she would call Darcy, let him know where she was and figure out how to get to where she needed to go. After all she did now have a map in her hands.

Darcy jumped up from the park bench and ran towards Katherine as soon as he saw her along the path. He wrapped her up in his embrace and held her tight. “Are you okay? He didn’t hurt you, did he?” He pulled back, worry all over his features as he took in the sight of his best friend. 

“I’m fine. He didn’t even get a chance to touch me.” She playfully pushed at his shoulder and then winced, bringing her hand back towards her chest. 

That didn’t help with Darcy’s worries. “Let me see your hands.” He brought them closer to him to compare their sizes. Her right hand seemed to be a bit swollen but he couldn’t quite tell. “Please don’t tell me you punched this guy.” He looked back up to her face, concern written all over his. 

She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “He made a grab for me, Darcy! What else was I supposed to do?” Her voice then grew smaller. “I’m pretty sure I broke his nose.”

Letting out a sigh, he looked up to the sky questioning the sanity of his best friend before undoing his tie. “Hold this end.” He handed her the wider part of his tie and began wrapping it around her hand and wrist. 

“Where’d you learn this trick?” She asked as she watched him work.

“You are aware that Bill likes to punch walls right?” He chuckled as he tucked and tied the end of the tie around her wrist.

She laughed with him, nodding her head. “I do remember. Just didn’t realize you’re still cleaning up his messes.” 

He gave her a sheepish grin. “Not as often as I used to. You, however, seemed to have picked up an investigation for him.”

Katherine rolled her eyes. “It’s a good story besides, I already checked to make sure he didn’t hire anyone to do this himself as some crazy scheme to get us all back together or whatever.”

“And how did you manage that?”

“Just because I no longer live on the upper east side doesn’t mean I lost all of my connections.” She flashed him a smirk as she continued on her way. Darcy grabbed her good wrist, however, and pulled her into a drug store. 

Darcy bought some bandages, tape, and an instant ice pack. Outside of the store, he unwrapped the tie from Katherine’s hand. “Okay, move your pinky around for me.”

She did as he asked, moving it in all different directions. “It feels normal.”

He brought her hands closer together again to look over them. He furrowed his brow when he noticed that there wasn’t any swelling. He then began pressing and pulling on her fingers, watching for any kind of reaction but there was nothing. “You know, it’ll just make me feel better if we wrap it just for the rest of the day.” 

“Then have at it. I guess the adrenaline finally wore off and I just felt the punch. I mean if I broke his nose, that would have to be a pretty hard hit, right?” She watched as Darcy began properly wrapping her hand, holding the plastic bag full of items in her free hand. 

He nodded, focusing on his current task. “Does this mean I’m becoming more like the Bryce to your Lara Croft now?”

Katherine laughed. “I think if you were a little more tech savvy then maybe.”

He smiled at her, popping the instant ice pack and placing it over her knuckles. “I’ll take it.”

Locking the door behind her, she let out a disappointed sigh. Her and Darcy’s investigation turned up nothing. It at least let her cross off another name on her list. She tossed her keys on the table in the entryway and moved to go to her room. “What happened to your hand?”

Katherine startled, spinning around to see Jack sitting on the couch. The tv was more so background noise as he had his knees up supporting the sketch pad he had in front of him. “You have got to stop doing that.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “What’d you do to your hand?” He knew he probably didn’t have any right to be worried after their earlier conversation but with how it was wrapped, it worried him. 

“I don’t think you really get to ask that question right now.” She sent him a glare before turning on her heel to continue on to her room.

Just because he had been right in his assumption didn’t mean that he let it go. He stood with a huff and followed after her. “Katherine, just tell me what happened to your hand.” 

“Why don’t you make some accusations? You seem to be good at that.” She turned back around, arms crossed. 

He raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright, I deserved that one. Do you need some ice?”

She quirked an eyebrow up. If he thought that she would let this go so easily, he clearly didn’t know her. “So you want to be civilized now? You don’t want to accuse me of going out and hitting some homeless guy with a man that I still don’t know, by the way.” She gave him a pointed glare before smirking a bit. “Then again he may look different from that front page picture I recognized him from.”

“So you did know him?” He took a small step back, causing Katherine to roll her eyes.

She then cleared her throat and put on her best headline reading voice. “Pulitzer’s daughter in Chicago at time of Snyder’s evil doings. Only saw article where Refuge shutdown.” She then let out a sigh and returned her voice to normal. “Look, I’m sorry for whatever happened to you and your friends. He’s a real devil but I didn’t know him. The first interaction I had with the man was whenever he tried to essentially kidnap me to take me back to my father’s before I broke his nose after our fight earlier. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have Darcy’s handy work to unwrap and a bed to crawl into.” 

At her confession, Jack’s eyes grew wide. He took a step closer and began to check for any other signs that Katherine was hurt. He babbled all the while doing it. She smacked at his hands, not wanting to be fussed over. She was perfectly fine earlier and she’s perfectly fine now. She kept trying to get his attention, to tell him that all was well, when she suddenly found herself wrapped in his embrace. 

“I’m so sorry, ace. I shoulda listened to ya. Then I coulda walked ya to meet Darcy and Snyder wouldn’t make a grab for ya. It’s just after Charlie told me that he was back around, I lost it a little bit. Say you forgive me? Please. I’m sorry, ace, I’m sorry.” When he felt her arms wrap around his back, he tightened his hold on her as if this hug alone would be able to keep her safe from the man who haunted his dreams. 

Any frustration from earlier dissipated. She gave him a tight squeeze and placed a kiss to his cheek. “I forgive ya, Jack. I’m sorry that I unknowingly brought him back around.”

Jack shook his head, his hair tickling the side of Katherine’s neck. “It’s not your fault. It’s your dad being awful, yet again.” He pulled back a bit, still holding onto her arms. “Now can I please see your hand?”

“Honestly, it was just Darcy being paranoid. I’m fine, promise.” She said as she lifted up her hand for Jack to inspect.

He began to unwrap the bandages, wondering where Darcy had learned to do this so well. Katherine explained a little about Bill and his habit in punching walls and tables. Once all the bandages were gone, Jack began pressing and pulling at her fingers, asking her how it felt each time. Katherine just shook her head, telling him that it all felt normal. He then brought both hands up, expecting her knuckles for any swelling. When he found none, he let out a sigh of relief before bringing her hands up to his lips and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “Looks like the only broken bones are those in Snyder’s face.”

Katherine smiled at him. “Thanks. Now try and get some sleep, okay? Stage designs can wait til tomorrow.”

“You heard about that? I thought I was only in the running for it.” Jack blinked in surprise. He had only just found out today that he could potentially be the set designer for the Singing in the Rain revival. 

“Oh, you’re gonna get it. I just know it.” She grinned confidently at him before going to her room. “Goodnight, Jack!” She called out, closing the door behind her. 

Jack sighed, looking towards his room then back at the couch then back again. She was right, designing could wait. He trudged into his room and crawled into bed, hoping that the revelations from the day wouldn’t haunt him in his dreams.

Katherine jolted awake. The only light was still that of the street lamps outside. She didn’t dare look at her phone, knowing if she knew the time she would be upset. She did look around her room, however, making sure that everything seemed to be in its place. That’s when she heard it again. The desperate cry of someone calling out “no”. It wasn’t someone. It was Jack. 

She threw the covers off and hurried across the hall and into Jack’s room. There she saw him tossing about, getting tangled in his blankets. She flipped the switch on in his room and jumped to his aid. “No, Katherine!” She blinked at his latest shout. She didn’t realize she made an appearance in his dreams. 

That was when she noticed that Jack was blinking back in awe at her. He had sat up with his cry out for her and had woken himself up. He hadn’t expected Katherine to actually be standing at the foot of his bed. “Did I - did I wake you?”

“Yeah, but it’s fine. Are you okay?” She moved to the side of his bed, sitting down on the edge of it. 

Jack thought for a moment, trying to figure out what to tell her. His nightmare had felt so real. They had been walking to the train as they always did when Snyder jumped out and grabbed her. He tried chasing after them but he could never catch up. He shook his head. “Not particularly but I will be.”

She reached out for his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” 

“Will you, uh, will you stay?” 

The last time they shared a bed flashed in their minds. Jack was holding his breath, knowing how weighted that question was. Katherine ran through every possible outcome. They weren’t drunk, they weren’t getting over any ex, they were helping each other through a nightmare. He had shouted her name for a reason after all. She nodded, getting up and turning off the light and closing the door before climbing into bed beside him. 

“May I?” Jack asked, reaching out an arm for a hug. 

Katherine nodded and soon she was pulled in close. Her head was on his chest, arms wrapped around each other as Jack rested his head on top of hers. She felt like she was in a cocoon. “I just need to know you’re here and you’re okay.” He finally whispered.

“I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. I’m okay.” She began to repeat like a mantra, soft and quiet as she rubbed his back in soothing circles. Maybe then she could get out of his hold and not think about how under different circumstances this would actually be nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I did a nod to some of Jeremy's other works, I figured I would do the same with Kara. Kara participated in a Singing in the Rain production in California before going back on tour with Wicked and going back to Beautiful. 
> 
> Thanks so much for the love on this story! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are revealed...sort of.

“You don’t even have your own office.” Katherine spun around at the sound of her father’s disgusted tone. She certainly wasn’t expecting to see him this early in the morning. If she was honest she wasn’t expecting to see him at all. 

“I thought I told your pet spider to tell you that I didn’t want to talk to you.” She ignored his comment about her work space. No she didn’t have an office but she had her own desk and her cubicle mates weren’t all that bad.

Joseph crossed his arms over his chest and gave his daughter a pointed look. “You mean the man you assaulted? He should really have you pay for his medical expenses.”

Katherine gasped. “The man I,” she then began laughing as she shook her head, “I was the one assaulted. What I did was in self defense. Maybe he shouldn’t stalk people and make a grab at them.” She then mirrored her father’s stance. “Now what are you really here for?”

Seeing his daughter so defensive around him, made him long for the days when she was his little girl, where he could do nothing wrong in her eyes. “That hacker has attacked me. They took $10,000 and gave it to some non-profit about children.”

Her father had finally been hit. She had been wondering when this day would come. She couldn’t help the smirk that tugged at the corner of her lips. “And you’re telling me this, why?”

Joseph sighed. “Because I know you’re investigating this.”

“Did your spider friend tell you that?” She quirked an eyebrow up before grabbing her notebook and pen. 

Her father gave her his look of I’m not going to play games which he emphasized by lowering his voice and saying her full name sharply. “Katherine Ethel.”

“Fine, fine. What’s the actual name of the non-profit they made a donation to?”

“Graham something or the other. Eliza Hamilton helped start it.” 

Katherine scribbled down the name. “My trust fund is still in tact?”

He looked at her as if she had three heads. What did that have to do with anything? “Your father has just been robbed and all you care about is your part of my money?”

“Isn’t that what you taught me, father? Only care about yourself and your success.” She didn’t wait for a response to her snide comment. “Now answer the question. Is my trust fund still in tact?”

For a split second the soft side of him, the side that provided scholarships for those at Columbia, the side that helped shine a light on people and creations of art that changed the world, the side that made sure stories to help better the world were published in his paper, hated how cold his now eldest daughter was towards him. His business side, however, couldn’t have been prouder. She would make it far if she kept this up. “They didn’t touch your trust fund.”

“Good.” She stood, grabbing her phone and keys. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do.” She slipped past her father without another word and headed back home. 

As she rode the elevator up to her floor, she really hoped no one was home. Charlie was at work, she was sure of that. The schools didn’t have a day off today. She was pretty sure Jack had a meeting this morning. Hopefully he would come back with news that he would be the set designer for Singing in the Rain. Then there was Romeo. Romeo was a bartender so it was a toss up of if he was home or not. 

“Anyone home?” She called out as she entered into the apartment. She set her keys down and made her way to the two rooms, she wasn’t sure about. Jack’s room was empty and as she passed the shared bathroom, she didn’t hear water running or see any feet in the stall. 

She let out a sigh of relief when Romeo’s room was also empty. Katherine hurried to the other end of the apartment to Charlie’s room. She didn’t know how much time she would have before either of the boys returned home. 

Charlie’s room was easily the biggest of the rooms in the apartment but what interested Katherine the most was his desk set up. It had a dual monitor display along with wireless keyboard and mouse. She sat down in his desk chair and wiggled the mouse. The screens lit up, the background pictures of him and his friends, and of course his user icon with a box requesting a password. 

Katherine groaned. She needed to know for certain. The last two hacks were just too similar to be coincidence. Something major happened to affect his friends and then those who were responsible were hacked. But then why wasn’t her own account hit as well as her father’s? 

She began looking around his desk to see if she could find anything that would back up her hunch. She pulled out each drawer until she got to the second one on her left side. It wouldn’t open, wouldn’t hardly budge. What was Charlie hiding? 

That’s when she heard the front door open. Her eyes widened and she scrambled out of Charlie’s room, grateful that it was right by the kitchen. She opened the fridge, pretending to look for something when she heard a groan come from behind her. “Why are you home? I should have had the whole place to grovel in for awhile.” 

Romeo plopped down at the kitchen island and laid his head on the counter. Katherine closed the fridge and opened up the freezer. She grabbed the carton of ice cream and then two spoons. She placed the carton in between her and Romeo before tapping his arm with the spoon.

He looked up and took the spoon in confusion. “Why are you being nice to me when I just walked out on your best friend?”

Katherine pulled the carton of ice cream back towards her. “You did what?”

All Romeo did was whine and pout, making grabby hands for the ice cream.

“You gonna tell me what happened?” 

He nodded. “Yes, now please, can I have the ice cream back?”

She slowly moved the carton back in between them. Romeo immediately dug his spoon in before she could take it away again. “So Darcy and I had a brunch date, right? He had a meeting in the area about a sponsor or something and we decided to brunch it up.” 

Katherine nodded, taking a bite of ice cream herself and encouraging Romeo to continue.

“I asked him about how his meeting went and he asked how my shift last night went and things were fine. Then we started talking about how nice this was and how we should do it more often and I agreed. We don’t get to see each other much because of our different schedules and he’s been so awesome about coming to hang out at the bar when I’m working even though you and I both know that’s not entirely his scene.”

Once more Katherine nodded. Her best friend much preferred a cafe or a coffee shop. If he wanted a drink he would go to a nice restaurant that served alcoholic beverages instead of a bar. 

“Well then he said that he loved spending time with me and I agreed. Then he was saying how he was grateful for you sticking us together because he was pretty sure he was falling in love with me and then I ran.” He stuffed his mouth with ice cream as he anticipated her response. He knew she and Darcy were close so he was preparing himself for some yelling. 

Instead she covered her face with her hand and groaned. “Oh my god.”

“He’s been like one of the few real relationships I’ve had. Us being together for almost two months is huge. I’m usually moved on by now.” He tried to defend himself.

She looked up then, eyes wide. “Two months is a long relationship for you?”

He had the decency to look sheepish. “Why do you think they tell me my name fits so well all the time?”

She rolled her eyes at that one. “Look, to remain as neutral as I can, you’re gonna have to figure out how you feel because Darcy deserves to know that at least instead of guessing if you two are still together or not. As Darcy’s best friend, figure out your shit because he is gonna be the one you wished you wouldn’t have let go. He’s the most amazing person I know and deserves the world. So I’m upset that you walked out on him after he poured his heart out to you. He’s worth more than just a fling and if that’s all you’re looking for then let him know because he’ll need to get back out there to find someone who will love him how he should be loved.” She took one more bite of ice cream before tossing the spoon in the sink. “So think about it, yeah?” Her voice was back to its normal tone, no longer laced with a threat. “Just let him know asap because the man is a worrier.” 

Just then her phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket, giving Romeo a pointed look before answering it. “Hey Darcy.” She said to emphasize the look she had just given as she head towards the front door. Romeo groaned, putting his head back down on the counter.

“Yeah, I heard. Romeo came back when I was still at home.” She grabbed her rain jacket off the hook so it would look like that was the reason she came back and left. “You wanna meet up somewhere? A mocha sounds really good right now.”

Katherine engulfed Darcy in a hug when she saw him at his favorite cafe. “I feel like this is my fault. Maybe I shouldn’t have set you up.”

Darcy shook his head as he pulled back. “No, I’m glad you did. I was the one that messed it up. I knew this was one of his longer relationships and I just had to go talking about love.”

“You shouldn’t have to hide how you feel though.” She pointed out as they got in line to order their drinks. 

“No, but it’s also about the showing part. I could have kept my mouth shut and continued to suggest ways to spend time together, send him random texts, you know little things like that. Now I’ve probably lost someone who made me really happy.” He looked down at his feet, trying to not cry in public.

She wrapped her arms around her best friend’s waist. “You still got me. Do I not make you happy?” She tried to make him smile.

He chuckled a bit and placed a kiss on top of her head. “Of course you do. You just know it’s not the same.” 

Katherine laughed as well, giving him a squeeze. “I know. I do have some news though that might lift your spirits.”

“Oh, yeah, and what’s that?” He asked after they ordered. 

“I have an idea who our Robin Hood is.” 

They grabbed their drinks and made their way outside. “Tell me everything.”

They sat at one of the tables outside. Katherine explained how her father had come to see her, how she connected some dots, and then how she was planning on not telling Bill. Darcy looked at her with wide eyes. He couldn’t believe what she was saying. “And how exactly do you plan on not telling Bill that Robin Hood is your roommate?”

She smacked his arm as she shushed him. “Keep it quiet, will ya? I don’t even know if it’s for certain. All I know is I need to figure out if my hunch is right or not. I’ll send Bill on a wild goose chase, I mean we still have names on your list to look into while I ask our suspect about things. I don’t want to send him to jail, Darcy. It’s not the most correct way to go about things but it’s not like he’s harming anybody. Besides, I already know how I’m gonna write this piece.” 

Darcy took one look at the grin on Katherine’s face and knew that no matter what he said, they would be doing whatever plan she had come up with. He let out a sigh and rolled his eyes a bit. “What do I need to do?”

“Nothing yet but I’ll let you know when I need ya.” It should be impossible for her smile to grow any bigger but it in fact did. 

He just shook his head. “If they don’t let you join the investigation team after this, I know just the place that would let you head the whole freaking department.”

“I’m not going to work for you unless I’m absolutely desperate and I’m nowhere near there yet.”

Darcy smirked. “I thought that was your excuse for taking a position at The World.”

She groaned, rolling her eyes. “I’m gonna get where I wanna be on my own. Now, if you’re done trying to poach me from The Sun, do you wanna come to this art gallery opening tonight I’m supposed to cover?”

“You’re not taking Jack?” He looked surprised. 

She squinted at her best friend, trying to figure out just what exactly he meant by that. Her expression caused Darcy to laugh. “Oh, c’mon, Kitty. I was basically replaced as your plus one when Jack came along. I wasn’t too hurt because I thought maybe she’ll separate from her work just enough to make an actual relationship work.”

Katherine scoffed. “I am not married to my work.”

He just gave her a pointed look over his coffee cup. “When’s the last time you’ve been on a date?”

“I’m on one right now.” She tried to defend.

Darcy shook his head. “This doesn’t count. This is a best friend date.”

“I dated in Chicago.” She then tried.

Once more Darcy gave her a knowing look. “You kept your sex life up by having one night stands a few times a month.”

“I really regret telling you everything about my life some days.” She took a drink from her mocha. 

That made Darcy laugh harder than he had since they had met up. “It’s okay. I know you still love me.” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” She then stood, needing to really get back to her office. “Walk me back to the office?”

“I’d like nothing more.” He smiled, looping his arm with hers. “Thank you.” He placed a kiss to her head as they waited for the light at the crosswalk. 

She smiled up at him, tightening her arm around his for just a moment. “Anytime.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The moment you've all been waiting for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the love this story has received! We're not near the end yet, a few more things gotta happen before that but we are getting close! I hope you enjoy this update. Just so you know this one does kinda push towards that teen rating but it's nothing you haven't seen on screen in a say PG-13 movie before. Happy reading!

Katherine went to go close her door. She had a few hours to freshen up before heading to the art gallery opening. Her hand met air though. Confused, Katherine turned around to actually face her doorway when she noticed that her bedroom door was missing. “What happened to my door?!” She yelled. 

Jack poked his head out from his room, her shout loud enough to be heard over the music he was playing. “Well, it certainly does look like you’re missing a door.”

She gave him an exasperated look. “How did you not notice it before?”

He came out into the hallway with a smirk. “Believe it or not, princess, I don’t pay attention to your room all the time.” 

“Ugh, you’re no help to me.” She groaned, going out into the living room to interrogate the two boys sitting on the couch. 

Jack just rolled her eyes and followed her out there, even walking faster so he could get there first. “Alright, boys. What happened to Katherine’s door?”

Romeo paused the movie and looked up at his roommates. Charlie sighed, looking over to the two. “Those who aren’t liars get to keep their doors.” The blonde said.

Katherine looked over at Charlie in disbelief. “This is all because I didn’t tell you guys I was a Pulitzer? Well welcome to the family.”

The boys all looked at her in confusion. She rolled her eyes before explaining. “My father took my door away because I slammed it one too many times but he was the one that kept upsetting me.”

“Now it’s because you lied to us.” Charlie said. 

“I’m not the only one who keeps secrets.” She threw back before storming off but not before she saw Charlie’s brief terrified look casted her way. Before going to her room, she slammed Jack’s door before softly opening it again and going into her room.

“Hey…” Jack dragged out the sound as he hurried to check to make sure nothing fell off his walls. 

Romeo looked over to Charlie. “Are you sure that was smart, pissing her off? Darcy’s told me horror stories.”

Charlie sighed. “You mean you aren’t even a little bit mad?”

The other boy shook his head. “I know her father’s an ass and treated Jack wrong but she’s nothing like her old man. I mean she’s here because she wants nothing to do with him, right? We all need fresh starts and second chances.”

“I guess you’re right.” Charlie groaned. “You gonna listen to your own advice?” 

“Too soon, Charlie, too soon!” Romeo said with a bit of a laugh.

Once he knew everything was fine, Jack made his way over to Katherine’s room. She was face down in one of her pillows, sprawled out on her bed. Chuckling, Jack sat down next to her. “So because you don’t have a door, you had to slam mine?”

She nodded her head. “It wouldn’t have been a dramatic exit without it.” She mumbled into her pillow.

That made Jack laugh. “What like accusing people that they all were keeping things secret wasn’t dramatic enough for ya?”

She shook her head. After a few moments of silence between the two, Jack sighed. “I’m sorry for Charlie overreacting. We’re real protective of each other and well your pops isn’t one of our most favored people.”

“Mine either.” She mumbled.

Jack looked down at her with a small smile and moved some hair from out of her face. His smile grew when he could properly see her features. “I know, ace. I’ll try to persuade him to give ya your door back.” 

She smiled back up at him. “What are you wearing tonight?”

He placed a hand over his heart. “You don’t trust my fashion choices?”

“You’ve had some bad ones. I kinda need to make sure I keep getting assignments.” She teased him.

“That hurts, ace, that hurts.” He laughed a bit. “What are you wearing tonight?”

“Probably just one of my black dresses. It’s nothing too fancy but it’s a step up from business casual.” That got her a blank stare from him. “Oh, my god let go find you something.” She sat up and got off her bed before going into his room. 

She was standing in front of his closet when he joined her. She shifted through his pants and tossed a pair of gray slacks on his bed. She moved onto his shirts and found a red and gray plaid button down. She then grabbed a gray striped tie and some gray shoes. Once her hunt was done, she smiled over at Jack. “There you go.”

He groaned. “I gotta wear a tie?”

“The tie and shoes are what dresses it up a bit more. Or I suppose you could forget the tie and wear your gray blazer.” 

Jack sighed. “I guess tie it is since the blazer’s dirty.”

“Well, then there you go. We’ve got to leave in a few hours.” 

A few hours later, the two reappeared and smiled at each other. They met in the middle of the hallway and Katherine adjusted his tie. “I swear I have to fix this every time before we go out.” 

He smirked down at her as he stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep from touching her. “Maybe it’s so I can get you close.”

She looked up at him, hands still on his tie. Something stirred inside them both as they locked eyes. She had this flash of an image of her pulling him down to her with his tie but Romeo’s voice broke the spell. “Get a room you two.” 

At the sound of Romeo’s voice, the pair jumped apart. Katherine cleared her throat and smoothed down her dress. “C’mon Jack we’re gonna be late.” She walked off, not even acknowledging Romeo. 

Jack did the complete opposite. As he passed by his friend, he stared him down before following Katherine out of the apartment. When the door closed, Romeo began laughing. Charlie rolled his eyes as he kept flipping through Netflix to find the next thing they were going to watch. “You wanna take a bet about if it happens tonight or not?”

“No. Because I know it’s not.” 

“Then I think we have ourselves a bet because I think it is. Ever since they made up after whatever happened at Davey’s wedding they’ve been close. It’s only a matter of time before they give in.” Romeo couldn’t believe that Charlie didn’t see it. 

“Me knowing that I proved you right will be plenty victory enough for me.” Charlie just grinned. 

“Ah, whatever.” Romeo waved his hand as he made his way into the kitchen. “Whatcha in the mood for tonight?” He asked, pulling open the drawer that held their take out menus.

Katherine stared at the painting. Her head tilted as she tried to determine what was on the canvas. Jack came up beside her, handing her a glass of champagne. “Please tell me you’re not going to give them a good review.” He whispered in her ear. 

She tried so hard to not let his closeness get to her. That was beginning to get harder and harder as time went on. “I’m going to give them a fair review.” She replied, taking a sip of her drink.

“Oh, c’mon, Kath, you don’t even know what that’s supposed to be and none of these pieces have any emotion behind them.” He pointed to the painting they were currently standing in front of. “How is this supposed to be a showcase on emotions when there’s no feeling behind them?”

She turned to look at him. “Maybe that’s the point? You’re feeling something now aren’t you?”

His eyes drifted down to her lips. It would be so easy. They were already standing so close to one another so no one else would be able to hear their actual thoughts on the gallery. “The only reason I’m feeling anything is because of the person standing in front of me.” 

Katherine snickered. “Is that the best you’ve got?” She took a step back, finishing off her champagne. “You’re gonna have to do better than that.” She then walked off to the next area of the gallery. 

Jack stared after her, groaning a bit as he slid to a slight crouch before following her. This woman was going to be the death of him. He walked up behind her and placed his chin on her shoulder. “Don’t you have enough for your article already?”

She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why I keep bringing you to these things.”

“Because you would be bored to death without me.” He stood up straight as he smirked at her. 

“I highly doubt that.” She teased him back. 

“Oh, so it’s like that, huh?” He feigned offense before getting an idea. “Then I bet you one kiss, and I mean an actual kiss, not one on the cheek or whatever other loophole you’ll be able to find, that you won’t be able to make it through the rest of this event without me.”

Never one to back down from a challenge, she stuck out her hand for them to shake on it. Jack grinned before bringing his hand up to spit on it. Katherine internally groaned but copied his actions before shaking his hand. “Have fun, princess. See you in five minutes.” He smirked before heading out of the gallery.

With him now gone, Katherine sighed before looking at the program for the evening’s festivities. They were wrapping up on the viewing and now she just had to sit through the speeches. She could do that. 

She indeed could not do it. The artist droned on and it was clear that the reason the art didn’t have any feeling behind them was because the artist didn’t have any personality. She tried so hard to make it through. Ten minutes in she couldn’t take it anymore and slipped out. Standing in the alley way, she checked her phone to see where Jack went. She saw the time instead and wondered if she could really go back in there for thirty more minutes. 

Fuck it. Katherine thought as she read where Jack had gone. Sarah hadn’t been mentioned in months. He had started to flirt with her. She couldn’t keep lying to herself. Stupid bet be damned. She would kiss that stupid smirk right off his face. 

Katherine walked to the bar at the end of the block. Once inside she looked around for Jack, finding him sitting at the end of the bar with his back to her. Perfect. She went up behind him and tapped his shoulder. He turned around and before he could get a teasing word, let alone a smirk out, she pulled him down to her, kissing him. 

As soon as their lips met, a fire ignited between them. Jack grabbed at her waist and pulled her in close. Her back arched ever so slightly from the height difference of him sitting on the bar stool and her standing on the floor. One of her hands crept up into his hair as the other stayed grasping his shirt. 

“I was beginning to think that I was wrong.” He said in between the wet kisses he left along her neck. 

“Have to keep your ego in check somehow.” She teased as she tugged on his hair a bit. “The artist was as dull as his paintings.” She further explained before nipping at his earlobe and kissing his neck. “Now take me home.” 

He smirked down at her before giving her one last kiss. “Yes, m’am.” He then took her hand and pulled her out of the restaurant. 

They couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. In the taxi, fingers were tangled in hair as lips locked. In the elevator, shirts were untucked and skirts were pushed up. Once they finally made it inside the loft, Jack pressed Katherine against the door. Working on leaving a small bruise on her neck, his hands made their way down to the back of her thighs. “Jump.” He ordered in between kisses. 

Managing a small hop, Katherine locked her legs around his waist. She then pulled his head back to her and kissed him. He squeezed her legs, doing his best to navigate to his room while she kissed and sucked along his neck. 

With the sound of the bedroom door closing, Charlie and Romeo slowly sat back up from where they lowered themselves to hide from their preoccupied roommates. Romeo smirked over at Charlie. “Guess you’re glad you really didn’t take that bet after all, huh?”

Charlie threw a pillow at Romeo. “Oh, shut up.”

“You think you can lighten up on her? She seems to make him really happy.” Romeo’s statement was accented by the laughter that came from Jack’s bedroom.

The slightly older boy sighed, leaning his head against the back of the couch. “Yeah, I guess so. She really hasn’t been all that bad.”

Romeo smiled. “That’s the spirit. Maybe we can give her, her door back?”

Charlie nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not going near that hallway until they’ve for sure fallen asleep.” His comment was accented by a moan. 

The younger of the two shook his head. “Yeah, not going anywhere near there. So what we watching?” He scrolled through his queue and randomly selected one of the tv shows he’s been meaning to watch so they would have something to binge for however long their two roommates would be at it. 

Katherine groaned as something came in contact with her breast. It wasn’t a good feeling. It felt more like someone had punched her. Then she heard the murmurs coming from next to her. She opened her eyes and saw Jack squirming in bed, an arm stretched out where he had in fact hit her in his sleep. It seemed like his nightmare was just beginning and she hoped that was the case. 

Sitting up, she wrapped the shirt of his around her. Just before she could try and wake him, the screaming started. She began to run her fingers through his hair, allowing her legs to take any hits from him thrashing about. “Jack, wake up for me. It’s just a dream. Wake up. You’re safe. I’m safe.” She remained calm as if she had been doing this for years. She kept repeating the soothing words to try and get him to wake up. 

Slowly but surely, the thrashing stopped, the shouts turned to murmurs, and Jack opened his eyes. He blinked a few times to orient himself back into reality, all the while Katherine continued playing with his hair. Jack turned on his side and looked up at her with his arms open wide. She smiled down at him and slid back down onto the bed and nestled herself against him. 

She wrapped her arms around his torso just as he wrapped his arms around hers. His hands slipped under his shirt she was wearing, hands splayed along her back as he brought her as close to him as he possibly could. The warmth and feel of her skin against his made him want to stay like that forever. He buried his head against her neck, placing a few light kisses there. “This is so much better than waking up to the boys.” He mumbled against her skin.

That made her laugh. “Yeah, I don’t know what I’d do if Tony was the first face I saw after a bad dream.” 

Jack chuckled. “I’m telling him you said that.”

She gasped. “Don’t you dare. I won’t hear the end of it for weeks.”

Katherine felt him smile against her neck. She placed a kiss to his hair and began to rub his back. After she took care of Robin Hood, she was planning on going after Snyder next. She didn’t want him anywhere near the loft, her, or Jack, ever again. 

“Katherine? We’re gonna be more than like friends with benefits, right?” He whispered, still from the comfort of hiding his face in her neck.

“I’d hope you’d treat your ace a little better than that.” 

He pulled back to look at her face. He really couldn’t believe what she had just said. “My ace?” He asked, looking at her in awe.

She nodded, a soft smile playing at her lips. “Yes, your ace. I’d follow you anywhere, Jack Kelly.”

Jack grinned before leaning down and kissing her. “Lunch is on me on Monday.” He whispered against her lips.

“You’re gonna make me wait until Monday to go on a real date with you?” She teased him.

He just smirked. “Mmhmm, I’m planning on keeping you in here with me for the rest of the day.”

“I think that’s something I can live with.” She pulled him in for a deep, passionate kiss. They didn’t deviate from his plan at all much to the dismay of their roommates.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Broken things are fixed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit of a short little thing. Thanks for all the love for this story! I don't have my outline right in front of me but I'm guessing maybe two to three more chapters left!

Bill sat at one of the tables outside of the coffee shop he was waiting for his friends at. He had always known Katherine would bring in Darcy to help her with the exclusive he offered but now that all three of them had been hit, he was beginning to get antsy. Maybe he shouldn’t have trusted her with the story. Then again, the police weren’t anywhere near where Darcy had claimed their friend was. 

He waved his hand when he saw Darcy weaving through the crowd, cup in hand. “I thought you said, Kathy was coming.” He said when he noticed the last person of their trio was nowhere to be found. 

“Hello to you too, Bill. I’m doing well, I hope you are.” Darcy greeted dryly. “Yes, Katherine is coming, she’s just held up at the office right now.” Bill didn’t need to know that Jack had surprised her with a rooftop picnic and that she would be running a little behind. Darcy was afraid he would use that against her somehow. 

He at least had the decency to look sheepish. “Sorry. It’s just not getting stopped and it’s starting to make me feel anxious.”

Darcy rolled his eyes. “Katherine’s not a miracle worker. She’s got good instincts, yes, but she’s a one woman operation who still has an actual job to do.”

“Why couldn’t she have taken the job with you? Or I could have found her something.” He sighed before taking a sip of his drink.

“If she didn’t take a job with me, you know damn well she would have never taken a job with you.” 

Bill slumped in his seat a bit, looking over at his friend exasperated. “What I did was so long ago! I apologized and we made up. I can’t believe she still doesn’t trust me.”

“Just take the fact that she took this story as a win.” Darcy didn’t feel like getting into this argument with his friend. Each time he and Katherine remotely tried to let their guard down around Bill, he just gave them just another reason as to why they now kept him at arm’s length. 

Bill nodded. “I know, I know.” He then sighed, looking over at Darcy. “So, tell me, how’s the new beau?”

Across the street, Romeo was headed towards the office building Darcy’s magazine was based out of. He just so happened to look over to the small cafe, remembering how the other boy raved about the cafe that was near his work. Just in the hopes of potentially seeing Darcy, he had looked over but he wished he hadn’t. 

Romeo witnessed what he had perceived as a tender moment between Darcy and another boy. The other’s head was turned away so all that was in view was the back of his head. Darcy had just laid his head on top of the other’s hand. The other boy lifted a hand and it seemed as if he was going to comfort Darcy. He couldn’t take anymore so he turned the other way and ran back to the train station. He had ruined his chances.

What Romeo didn’t know was that Darcy had groaned in annoyance before laying his head on the table, over Bill’s hand. Bill lifted his hand to push Darcy off saying something about how couldn’t he wait until Kathy got here to be dramatic. Bill then grew a little serious and sighed when Darcy didn’t sit back up. “What happened?” 

“I told him I was falling in love with him.” Darcy answered, sitting up finally and rubbing at his forehead in an attempt to remove the diamond pattern from the cafe table.

Bill just gave him a way to go look. “Well, now you just need to get back out there. Find a rebound. Get Kathy to take you to one of those gay bars.” 

“Where am I taking you to?” Katherine asked as she walked over to the table causing Darcy to look up. The boy smirked and motioned to his bottom lip in a silent attempt to tell her that her lipstick was smudged. She caught on and sat down with wide eyes before grabbing the napkin dispenser and a napkin, using the metal container as a mirror to fix her makeup. 

“So glad you could join us. What was the hold up at the office?” Bill snickered.

She glared over the napkin dispenser. “Don’t worry about it, junior.” She sat the dispenser down and pulled out her notebook. “Now can we get to business? I have three more names to check out until I’m back at square one but I’m pretty certain that one of them is our Robin Hood. Do I have your permission to write this story how I want to?”

Bill sized Katherine up. There was something she was hiding. She was being vague. He looked over to Darcy, who was looking back at him expectantly. “You’re on this Robin Hood’s side aren’t you?” 

Katherine just shrugged. “The people who run this city surely aren’t going to give back like they should because they’re greedy and want to make sure they keep their overzealous life style. If someone wanted to bring justice about in this way, why should we stop them? I mean we talked about doing something like this when we entered into our father’s riches so why not have it start now?”

“What we talked about was different and you know it. He hacked into Darcy’s personal account and you’re still on his side?” Bill asked, growing angry.

“If you can tell me how our conversations were different without the mention of criminal activity, go ahead.” She motioned with her hand that he had the floor. 

Darcy kept to his seat, sinking down a bit. He was now in the middle of a battle of wills and he would rather not be. 

Bill tried multiple times, starting and stopping before giving up with a huff. Katherine did her best to not look as pleased as she was but a small smirk slipped through her grip on her emotions. “Robin Hood is no different than the superheroes we love. Let me run with the story how I want to and I promise he won’t strike ever again.”

They once more entered into a stare down but she kept her confident air about her. Either way she was going to write the story how she wanted. She figured she would be nice and ask so she would at least know how she would be writing it.

“Fine,” Bill huffed. “You can write it how you want to but I’m coming on these last few investigations.”

Katherine grinned. “Thank you. You won’t be disappointed. I promise.”

Darcy let out a sigh of relief. That wasn’t as bad as it could have been. “Now we’ve got that out of the way, can we get some macaroons to share?”

Romeo looked over the couch when he heard the front door close. Seeing Katherine dropping her keys on the table and placing her change in the collective change jar, he stood, his hurt coming back up to the service. “Why didn’t you tell me he moved on?”

Not expecting to be yelled at as soon as she walked into the door, she startled before turning to Romeo, confusion written all over her face. “What are you talking about? He hasn’t moved on. He’s still devastated over it.”

“That’s not what it looked like when I saw him.” He crossed his arms, briefly wondering if she was lying again. She did after all lie about her real name so she was clearly capable of doing such a thing to protect her best friend. They only lived together. She didn’t have any loyalty towards him. His rational side screamed that she was the one who set them up so she’d care.

“Where did you see him?” She quirked an eyebrow up, slipping her hands into her pockets. If he was this upset then maybe there was a chance for him and Darcy after all.

“I was going to his office. Saw him with some other dude at that cafe he likes. They looked real cozy.” How was she so calm? And why was she smiling?

Katherine began rocking back and forth subtly, a smile on her face as she realized what Romeo must have seen. “Was this say around lunch time?”

He just nodded, trying to figure out how she knew. Unless she had been there? Had she been and he didn’t see her? She could have been inside he guessed. 

“That was Bill. They’re not together. Bill’s our friend. We were meeting there to talk about the story I’ve been working on. It’s actually kind of a central location for all of us. Darcy is still very much into you.” Her smile turned into a smirk when she noticed the look of recognition on Romeo’s face.

Darcy had told him about Bill and he had seen how touchy feely he was around Katherine so he must be that way with his other friend too. He still had a shot though. He could fix this. He grinned and hugged Katherine. 

“You know he’s probably still at the office. You could probably still catch him.” She offered as they pulled back from the hug. 

Romeo beamed as he hurried to put his shoes on. “Thanks Katherine!” He called, running out the door.

“Go get ‘im, Romeo!” She yelled back just as the door closed. 

Running through the streets of the city, Romeo dodged as many people as he could, cars too. He probably should have taken the subway to get to the side of the city that he needed quicker but he couldn’t possibly stand to wait on the train. When he finally made it to the building, he bent over, clutching his knees as he tried to catch his breath. Almost there. 

When he felt like normal once again, he walked into the building with a confident stride. Pressing the button to call the elevator over and over again was the only thing that showed how nervous he really was. Almost at the very top was the floor and when he got there, not too many people were still around. He looked towards Darcy’s office and as Katherine said, he was still there bent over some papers with a red pen. 

“Hey.” Romeo said after knocking on the open office door.

“Hey.” Darcy replied, in shock that the man who had stolen his heart was now standing in front of him. 

“Can we talk?” The shorter of the two asked, hope swelling in every inch of his being.

Darcy pushed up his glasses and nodded, motioning to one of the chairs across from his desk. 

It took Romeo a few tries before he finally spoke. Darcy waited patiently, knowing how difficult it was to bare your soul to someone. Romeo wished he had practiced this a bit more but it was now or never. “So I’ve been thinking about what you said and how I reacted and how I was an idiot. I’m not the relationship guy. When I’ve been in one I usually wind up doing something wrong and that ends things. But these past couple of weeks, I’ve come to realize just how much I missed you. I was asking Katherine how you were. I even tried to come to tell you all of this earlier today but I saw you at that cafe you love with Bill and well I didn’t know it was Bill. I thought you had moved on and that killed me. So if you’re willing to give me a try again, I think I’m falling in love with you too.”

As Romeo talked, Darcy was on the edge of his seat. He wasn’t quite sure where this could go but by the end of it, he was smiling like a fool. He got up from his seat and crouched down in front of the other. “I would like nothing more.” 

Romeo grinned before leaning down to kiss his boyfriend. A smile formed on both of their faces. They had gotten their second chance and they were not going to let that slip away. 


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone's sweet on the star reporter and Katherine is really not a fan of Bill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little shorter than the others. I could have continued on with the next scene I have planned but I wanted to save it for the next chapter so here ya go! Thanks for all the love and happy reading!

Jack ran from the elevator to Katherine’s desk. He pulled back on the chair before spinning her around. A large grin lit up his features, his excited laughter mixed in with Katherine’s squeal of surprise. When he stopped her chair so they could be face to face, she fought hard to glare at him through her dizziness and confusion. “I got Singing in the Rain!” He finally revealed causing Katherine to have a similar face splitting grin. 

She jumped out of her chair and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Oh my god! I’m so proud of you! Broadway’s not gonna know what hit ‘em.” She then pulled back, giving him a quick kiss. “I can’t wait to see what you come up with. I know it’s gonna be amazing.”

He gave her another kiss but she pulled back before he could deepen it. “I can’t kiss my girl in public to celebrate?” He pouted, trying to steal another one.

Katherine laughed and shook her head. “Not when you’re in a room full of people who would report on it.” 

“Plumber! The creative team for Singing in the Rain’s just been announced. I want an article by the end of the day. Also, congratulations, Mr. Kelly.” Her editor called out across the floor. She had the luck of having her desk nearby. 

“And now I’ve got a story to write.” She leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “We’ll celebrate once I get off work, promise.” 

“I’ll hold you to it.” He gave her one last kiss before pulling away. Before he got too far away from her desk, he turned back around. “Hey, Plumber!”

She poked her head back out into the walkway, raising an eyebrow at him.

He grinned. “Write it good.”

Rolling her eyes, she waved him off. “Get outta here!”

Pulling up the press release, Katherine set to work on writing the simple article. It wouldn’t make the print version but it would go up on their website. Print was usually saved for bigger stories, interviews, and reviews to cut down on cost. Her phone lit up when she finished the article as if the person on the other end knew that she just had. She opened it up, seeing that it was from Jack instructing her to come to Jacobi’s once she clocked out. 

She felt like the last one to arrive. In the back of the deli was a semi-private room and it was filled with a rambunctious group of boys. Their chatter added to the noise of the deli. She almost felt bad for the others who were just trying to have a decent meal but the noise level certainly wasn’t unbearable. 

She really shouldn’t have been surprised that it was Jack who was standing on top of the table while everyone else circled around him. Katherine stayed near the back to take everything in and then his words registered with her. He was reading her article out to them. “To round out the creative team is a set designer Broadway should keep its eyes on. Jack Kelly, who has recently made his Broadway debut with Hit List, has been chosen to design the revival’s set. Kelly’s other works include King of New York, Something to Believe In, The Bowery Beauties, and The Penthouse. Casting details will be released at a later date. Singing in the Rain is scheduled to open for the next Broadway season.”

Everyone cheered as Jack finished reading. He grinned and looked up from his phone when he noticed Katherine standing at the edge of the room. “Part the seas boys, I gotta get to our star reporter.” 

Jack hopped down from the table and made his way over to Katherine. “Some say you’re sweet on me after reading that.”

She just shrugged and gave him a smirk. “And what gave you that idea? It’s clearly the other way around.” 

He leaned in close, hand clutching his chest. “You wound me, Plumber.”

“You enjoy it, Kelly.” Her smirk grew as she waited to see what he would do. Just as he moved in closer to give her what she was sure to be a kiss to leave her breathless, she ducked under his arm and made her way further into the room. 

The boys laughed as Katherine grinned victoriously. “Hey, Kelly? You sure you’re man enough for her?” Tony called out causing another round of laughter. 

Jack just rolled his eyes. Katherine smirked at him around her glass of water. She raised an eyebrow to add to her taunting him, as if saying what are you going to do about it? He returned her smirk with one of his own. Oh he knew exactly what he was going to do about it. He just needed to let Romeo and Charlie know to not come back to the loft for a couple of hours. 

As schedules grew busier, Jack and Katherine began to see less and less of each other. After the first night of investigating with Bill, he took over and it drove Katherine nuts. She hadn’t been able to talk to Charlie yet, so she bit her tongue and went along with it. They were currently in Bill’s car, watching the entrance to a hotel for a suspect. They had long gone past the list she had been working off of. She didn’t really understand why Bill wouldn’t let her try to dig up some more suspects on her own. The person they were waiting for didn’t even make sense to her. Then again this was one of Jack’s nights off this week and she would much rather be with her boyfriend than watching someone who she knew wasn’t their Robin Hood. 

“This doesn’t even make sense, Bill. Why would Alice Roosevelt even do this?” She looked over to her friend after finishing her bite of orange chicken. 

“They’ve all been from people who don’t care for her father.” He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Katherine rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t explain Darcy or even the whole charity thing. Don’t you think if this was about her father that all money stolen would have been put in her father’s campaign fund?” 

“Darcy’s could have been an accident. Trying to get to his father.” He then looked over at her. “Where are those investigating skills? If she put the stolen money in her father’s campaign fund then it would be rather obvious who the person was, right? So she’s a perfect candidate. I don’t know why you didn’t think of her before.”

Katherine wanted to so badly throw her take out container at Bill’s big head. Instead she finished her dinner and grabbed her charger out of her bag. “Where’d you think you’re going?”

“Inside the hotel to get away from you for a few minutes. Stay here.” She pushed open the car door and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

“You’re not being very inconspicuous!” He yelled after her.

She sighed and stuck her head back into the car. “Alice doesn’t know what I look like and I’m such a good sweet talker the front desk clerk will let me sit in the lobby to charge my phone.” With that she slammed the car door and made her way inside the hotel. 

As she predicted, the front desk clerk let her sit in the lobby to charge her phone. She plopped down in one of the chairs by a wall outlet and began to scroll through her various social media feeds. She hadn’t even realized that Alice had walked by her just as she sat down. 

Bill sat up in his seat when he noticed that the eldest Roosevelt walked out onto the sidewalk. He was waiting for Katherine to show up behind her but when Alice got into a cab and Katherine was nowhere to be found, Bill sent a quick text and followed after the cab. 

_ She just got into a cab. Following her. _

Katherine rolled her eyes when she got it. Sure she wished she would have seen Alice walk by but she was really more upset about the fact that Bill left her. She waited a few more minutes before unplugging and heading home. 

At the sound of keys hitting the ceramic bowl by the door, Jack turned to see Katherine toeing off her shoes. He let out a sigh of relief, seeing that she didn’t seemed harmed in anyway. He wasn’t too happy that her supposed friend stranded her. “You come here often?” He asked in greeting, chuckling a little bit as he watched her try to stop herself from smiling. 

“You are the most impossible boy.” She shook her head as she walked over to the couch.

He just grinned up at her as he made room for her to plop down next to him. “So you keep telling me.” He pressed a kiss to her head once she was finished making herself comfortable against his side.

The baseball game he had been watching was now long forgotten as they reveled in each other’s presence. “How was your day off?” She finally asked. 

“It would have been even better if you had been around.” He answered honestly causing her to chuckle.

“Yeah, I wish I would have been too instead of wasting my time.”

“We could make up for it. That way I won’t think about going to find Bill and punchin’ ‘im for leavin’ yous behind.” 

Katherine shook her head. “He’s not worth it, Jack.” She then looked up at him. “Can we just go to snuggle in bed? I feel like I could fall asleep any minute and I don’t feel like falling asleep on the couch.” 

“Of course.” He smiled and stood before turning around to offer his back to her. “C’mon, hop on.”

She didn’t have to be told twice. Pushing herself up to stand slightly on the couch, she wrapped her arms and legs around him so he could give her a piggyback ride. As he walked down the hall, she placed a kiss to his cheek. “You’re so good to me.” 

Jack chuckled and turned to smile at her as best he could. “Anything for you, princess.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katherine knows how to end things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: No this is not the last chapter but it just might be the second to last. Thank you so much for all the love and support for this story. It means a lot! I do plan on writing some smutty one shots for these two. I've had a few fade to black scenes that I want to dive into more. So be on the look out for those if that's something you're interested in. Happy reading!

“Ugh, turn it off.” Katherine groaned as a phone kept ringing. She buried her head further into her pillow in the hopes that she could drown out the noise and go back to sleep.

“That’s yours.” Jack replied, turning away from the noise. Who called so early in the morning?

She groaned once again, lifting her head to see that it was indeed her phone. Darcy’s picture lit up the screen causing her to sigh. He wouldn’t be calling at seven in the morning if it wasn’t important. “Darcy, why?” She mumbled into the phone as she laid back down.

“I just saw something quite interesting and thought you should know.” He answered, not even noting that he seemed to have interrupted her sleep. 

“And it couldn’t have waited until a little later on in the morning?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow even if he couldn’t see it.

“Well, I guess I’ll call and tell you later that I just saw Alice Roosevelt coming out of Bill’s apartment.” 

That certainly woke her up. She sat straight up, no longer trying to keep her voice low. “He did what?!”

“I thought that would get your attention.” Darcy chuckled.

“Darcy Reid, I am not in the mood for games right now no matter how much I love you.” She growled, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.

“Sorry, sorry. Yeah, she was wearing one of his shirts and everything. Bill seemed rather proud of himself too.”

“And he wants me to act serious! Well, he’s got a thing or two to learn about that. I am not going to waste my time when I have a story to track down when he clearly is using this to find his next conquest!”

Before she could rant any further, Jack took her phone out of her hand. “She’ll call back after breakfast.” He then ended the call, setting the phone under his pillow. Katherine turned to him and was just about to speak when he kissed her. 

She was a bit surprised but kissed him back, allowing him to lay them back down as their lips danced. “Mmm, what are you doing Jack Kelly?” She finally managed to ask before he could deepen the kiss anymore.

Smirking, he trailed kisses across her cheek and down her neck. “Kissing it better.” He mumbled against her neck before paying attention to the spot that always got a reaction from her. At the small moan, he smirked once more, propping himself up on his forearm so he could look down at her. “Is it working?”

Katherine rolled her eyes and pushed at his shoulder causing him to fall back to his side of the bed, laughing. After a moment, she curled against his side, a small smile on her lips. “Yeah, it worked.” She whispered.

Jack smiled, placing a kiss on top of her head as he wrapped his arms around her. “Good.”

That was the only blissful moment she had the whole day. Bill had shown up at her office and it took everything in her not to yell at him in front of the entire floor. “I’m going to Irving Hall to check out rehearsal for the new show Medda Larkin’s putting together. I’ll be back in a few hours.” She called out to her editor as she dragged Bill out of the building.

Once far enough away from the building, she rounded on him. “Are you kidding me?”

“What are you talking about Kathy?”

“Oh, don’t start with me junior. You know exactly what I mean.”

“When did you become such a bitch?”

“When you became an asshole!” She turned away and pinched the bridge of her nose. This wasn’t helping anything. “Listen,” she turned back around, “you had told me you didn’t think I was taking this seriously and yet you use our very first investigation together to add another notch onto your belt. If you want this mystery solved, we are doing things my way. I will call you when I have another list of people if you’re still so set on being involved in this.”

“I didn’t use it to get laid.” 

“Then what did your little head take over while you were chasing her down?”

“Why did Darcy have to tell you?”

“Because Darcy is actually wanting to help with this investigation. You just now wanted to be involved after you decided that you weren’t going to like the angle I was going to take.”

Bill threw his hands in the air. “Well, yeah, you’re siding with the guy committing the crime! I knew you’ve always had an apprehension to our lifestyle but really, Kath? Don’t you think that’s a bit far?” He then gasped and pointed towards her. “Oh, my god. You’re Robin Hood!”

She gave him an incredulous look. “Do you even hear yourself right now?”

“Then prove me wrong.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

Katherine shook her head, rolling her eyes. “This is ridiculous.”

“You’re not exactly helping yourself.”

“The only html I know is the super basic level so I can make my online articles and page look nice. I wouldn’t even know where to begin when it comes to hacking into a bank.”

“You could have hired someone.”

“I didn’t hire anyone. I don’t make that kind of money.”

He squinted his eyes at her before sighing. “I’ll send you a list of people that could be considered enemies.”

That list turned out to be a long one. When she wasn’t at work, she was with Bill looking into each person. After a few weeks and a little help from Darcy, she managed to get a night off. The loft was dark except for the glow of television. Darcy and Romeo had one side of the sectional while Jack and Katherine had the other side. Charlie had decided to go hang out with Davey because then he was only a third wheel instead of a fifth. 

In between each couple was a bowl of popcorn on top of the blanket draped across them. Their drinks and candy of choice rested against their side. Darcy had his legs stretched out in front of him, arm draped across Romeo’s shoulders while the shorter boy curled up against him, resting his head on Darcy’s shoulder. Jack’s legs were propped up against the coffee table, his feet and calves peeking out from under the blanket. His arm was draped against the back of the couch so she could get as close as possible. Her legs were tucked under her, knees resting on Jack’s thighs, while her head rested against Jack’s shoulder.

About halfway through the movie there was a knock on the door. Everyone groaned, not wanting to interrupt anything. They hoped that if they just stayed quiet that whoever was on the other side of the door would just go away. That didn’t work.

The knock grew louder and soon a voice joined in. “I know you guys are in there. I can hear the tv.” 

Katherine turned a glare towards Darcy, upset that Bill had come over. She had thought he had handled it so they both could enjoy a night in. Darcy shrugged and stood to go get the door. Romeo reached over to the remote and paused the movie. The ones that remained on the couch, turned to face the front door.

Darcy opened it just enough so he could see Bill’s face and sighed. “We had an agreement, Bill. What are you doing here?” 

“I need Katherine. The person’s not too far from here. We could actually go talk to them.”

“She’s not going anywhere. We are in the middle of a double date.” Darcy shook his head. He wasn’t going to let Bill ruin their evening.

Bill rolled his eyes. “She can smooch on Jackie Boy later. I thought she wanted to be an investigative reporter. She can’t do that by sitting at home.”

At that Katherine pushed herself up and if it wasn’t for Jack grabbing hold of her waist to bring her into his lap, she would have climbed over the back of the couch. “Easy there, tiger.”

“If I could just give him one black eye…” She muttered.

Jack chuckled before kissing along her jaw. One hand slid under her shirt to rub soothing circles on the small of her back, hoping to get her to calm down. “Then I’d have to bail you out.”

“Oh, like you wouldn’t enjoy doing that.” She rolled her eyes, a small smile on her face. Here he was again, kissing it better.

He pulled back and flashed her a smirk. “I’d enjoy every second of having to bail you out, princess.”

“Kath? He’s not leaving.” Darcy whispered after coming back over to the couch. Bill was standing just inside the door. 

She sighed, looking down at her lap. She turned to Jack and gave him a sweet kiss. Jack just held onto her tighter. “You’re really not going are you?”

“He’s just gonna stand there and then be obnoxious if we ignore him. I’d rather not go through that annoyance.” She then lowered her voice. “Besides this will be the last time he bothers us.”

Jack raised an eyebrow before realization hit. “You have a plan.”

Katherine nodded and gave him one last kiss before standing up. “Let me get my phone and change.” She said as she walked into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. Grabbing her phone off her nightstand, she called Charlie as she went into her closet to change out of her lounge wear.

“Is everything okay?” Charlie asked as soon as he answered. Why would she be calling him when they’re supposed to be having date night?

“Sort of. Do you have everything you need at Davey’s house to do what you do in your free time?” She cut straight to the chase as she switched into a pair of leggings. 

Charlie’s eyes widened even if she couldn’t see them. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re the Robin Hood I’ve been after. So do you have what you need at Davey’s or not?”

He froze. He couldn’t believe she had figured it out. What if others figured it out? Would he go to jail? 

“No one else knows. The police isn’t even close. They’re looking at the wrong set of suspects. You probably shouldn’t have taken money from Darcy when he and Romeo started dating and then from my father when you found out I was a Pulitzer.” She quickly explained. 

Still there wasn’t a reply so Katherine sighed. “Look, I’m not going to report you either. Matter of fact I’ve been trying to talk to you about the article I’m writing but you’ve been really good about making sure someone else is around you when I’m near. I just need three things.”

Charlie let out a sigh on the other end. He knew he could trust her and she had been turning her friend Bill far from his trail. “What is it?”

“I need you to hack into mine and Bill’s accounts and then promise that you’re not going to do it anymore. Can’t have you going to jail.”

“Wait, what?”

She rolled her eyes as she pulled on an oversized cardigan. “I’ll explain later. Just make Bill’s donation to the Me Too movement and then put mine for Broadway Cares.”

He nodded his head, putting the two organizations to memory. “Okay. I’ll text you when it’s done. I’ll need to come back home though.”

“That’s fine. I’ve got to go out with Bill anyway. Thank you, Charlie.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just make me sound as good as you do Jackie?”

“You got it.” With that she hung up and made her way to where Bill was waiting.

They wound up at Jacobi’s, sitting in a booth that allowed them to see the whole floor. Katherine sipped on the wine she made Bill buy her as she looked around at the people. “Who exactly are we looking for?” 

“I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out by now.” Bill smirked around his beer glass. 

Then it hit her. She rolled her eyes and finished off her wine. She really needed something stronger to deal with this tonight. “You seriously can’t still be on that I’m Robin Hood.”

He gave a small shrug. “It just makes sense.”

She placed her glass aside so she could lean forward on the table. “You mean to tell me, you ruined my date night for a theory I’ve already debunked. Are you really that lonely?”

“I’m sorry, what? What does that have to do with anything?” He had been preparing his small quip back to dig even deeper under her skin but her last question struck a nerve. He should have known from her glare that she was going to throw something his way. She was good with words, after all. 

“Because you let your father get to you, crush your dreams of doing what you wanted to do when you took over the Journal, you have pushed those closest to you away and have become lonely. I’m honestly surprised you didn’t invite Darcy along or was that to spare him from knowing the truth?” She used air quotes around her last question. 

“You’ve always been such a know it all. You think you can just spew some bullshit about me being lonely and think I’ve forgotten how you’re clearly using this to deflect that you’re Robin Hood. You don’t know me.” He wasn’t about to let her have the last word. 

Katherine leaned back and collected her things. She couldn’t hold out on Charlie anymore. She’d just figure out how to show him that she had been hit too later. “You’re right. I don’t because I’m looking at the shell of a man who was my best friend. Have a good night, Billy.” 

She moved out of the booth and started towards the door when both her and Bill’s phone rang, notifying them of text messages. She received two, one from Charlie and one from her bank. “Did you just?” Bill looked towards her a mix of emotions on his face.

Shaking her head as she turned around, she showed him the text from her bank. When he saw that she too had been hacked he back down a bit. “So what are we gonna do?” He asked.

“We are not going to do anything. I am going to take care of it.” She turned on her heel and finally made it out of the restaurant.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Secrets revealed!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a short and sweet chapter as we come to a close on this story. There will be one more chapter because I've got a weird thing with odd numbers. I have so enjoyed writing this story and will probably do something with these characters again. Thank you so much for all the love and support! Happy reading!

Charlie threw his door open and made his way to Jack’s room as quick as he could. Romeo and Darcy had left and Katherine hadn’t returned yet so it was up to him to help his best friend through his latest nightmare. He plopped on the bed and started calling out to him. He didn’t want to touch him because the last time someone tried to shake him awake, they got punched. How had Katherine been doing this? “Jackie! Wake up!” Charlie finally yelled which seemed to have done the trick.

Jack sat up straight, looking around his room as if reorienting himself to reality. He then turned around to face his best friend when his heart stopped racing. His eyes widened when it registered that Charlie had woken him up and not Katherine. “Where’s Kath?”

“She’s still out.”

“What do you mean she’s still out?” He grabbed his phone to check if he had any missed calls or texts from her. “If that bastard’s left her stranded again…” He trailed off, worry beginning to grow even more when he saw that he had no new notifications from her. 

Charlie sighed. When he had started all of this, he didn’t realize how messy it could have gotten. Now he had Katherine covering for him and she wasn’t back yet which was causing his best friend to stress. “I shouldn’t have started this and then she’d be here.”

“What’re you talkin’ ‘bout, Charlie?” Jack looked to his best friend, confused.

“Ya know this Robin Hood she’s been chasing?”

Jack nodded so Charlie continued. “I’m Robin Hood.”

“You’re what?! Charlie, you could go to jail!”

“Youse don’t think I know that?!” 

It was then that the front door closed. Katherine knew that she had to talk to Charlie but she really just wanted her bed at the moment. She had her head down, planning on just putting her sweat pants on again before going to find her roommate. Jack saw her coming down the hall a sense of relief washed over him but he was still riled up from his nightmare and Charlie’s confession. “Where have you been?”

Katherine’s head shot up and looked into Jack’s room to see both him and Charlie staring back at her. “I was with Bill. You saw me leave.”

“He didn’t strand you?”

“No.” 

“Then why are you coming back so late?”

Sighing, Katherine leaned in Jack’s doorway. “Because Bill and I got into a fight and I took a longer way home to clear my head.”

“Did he hurt you?” Jack looked her over, there wasn’t anything popping out at him right away but she could be covering something up.

“No. Just because he upsets me 90 percent of the time, doesn’t mean that he’d hurt me. We were better friends than this once upon a time and that Bill’s still in there somewhere.” She flitted her hand around, rolling her eyes ever so slightly.

Jack quirked an eyebrow up. The jealousy he had been trying to keep back since she and Bill had begun to spend more time together finally bursting through. “Are you sweet on him?”

The accusation and the insinuation made Katherine’s blood boil a little bit. “What the - no! I wouldn’t touch Bill with a hundred and a half foot pole. I can’t believe you would think such a thing! I was working on a story and trying to keep your friend out of trouble!”

He looked between Charlie and Katherine, trying to figure out how she possibly knew it was his best friend when he only just found out. “Wait, you knew it was Charlie and you’ve still been investigating?”

“Yeah, I needed to make sure my hunch was right and to make sure that no one but me and well, Darcy, didn’t know the truth. Now that I know and Charlie helped me out tonight, I’ve ended the investigation and hopefully the story will be printed soon.”

Jack gave Charlie a now do you trust her look and he just shrugged, a small smile on his lips. “If you need to know any details, I’d be more than happy to tell ya.” Charlie offered.

Katherine shook her head. “I’m not putting in a lot of details. I don’t want you going to jail because of this.” She then shrugged as she pushed off from the doorway. “Robin Hood was always one of my favorite stories growing up. Don’t worry, I’ll make ya sound as good as I do Jack.”

Jack just grinned as he watched her walk away. Sure he had just been upset with her a few seconds ago but she was out protecting his best friend. “She’s something else, ain’t she?” Oh, how he loved that girl. Holy shit, he was in love with Katherine Plumber. 

Charlie just rolled his eyes and shoved at Jack’s shoulder before getting up, completely unaware of Jack’s inner dialogue. “I’m gonna go so you can go after her like I know you wanna.” Yet he was pretty sure he knew. His best friend didn’t look that far gone even when he was with Sarah.

Jack just grinned as he scooped up a t-shirt from the floor and slid into Katherine’s room. He didn’t know how or when he was going to tell her but he knew that they were not going to sleep in their separate beds tonight. 

Katherine had just finished kicking her leggings to the side when she saw Jack coming in via her mirror. “Jack, I’m tired.” She whined a bit, noticing an expression on his face that she couldn’t quite place. 

“Who said I wanted anything?”

“You’re face did.” Despite standing in front of him in nothing but her bra and underwear, she turned to him, hands on her hips and an eyebrow raised.

He stopped in front of her, his own eyebrow raised. “What about my face?”

“You’re up to something.” 

He took a step closer to her, now smirking which added to Katherine’s wariness of what was going on in that head of his. “Maybe I just wanted to see my girl before she went to bed. Give her a good night kiss.”

“Oh, really now?” She didn’t quite believe him. 

“Mmhmm. But first raise your arms.” When she didn’t do what he had asked, he motioned with his hands for her to do just that. “Go on. This ain’t gonna work if you don’t listen.”

Katherine rolled her eyes and slowly raised both arms over her head. The only way to figure out what he was planning was to go along with it. Jack brought up the t-shirt he had gotten and pulled it on over her. She lowered her arms as he pulled the shirt down and before she knew it, he took her hand in his and walked them across to his room. 

He climbed into bed and looked expectantly up at her. She couldn’t help the smile that lit up her features. God, she loved this boy. Oh my god, she was in love with Jack Kelly. What did she do now? She apparently took too long because Jack was patting the spot next to him. She rolled her eyes, figuring she would think of something later, and crawled into bed. 

Immediately they curled up against each other, legs tangled under the blankets and arms wrapped around the other. The few minutes Katherine listened to Jack’s heart beat was enough to begin to lull her to sleep. He placed a kiss to her forehead, smiling against her hair. “Good night, Kath.”

She placed a kiss to his chest in return. “Good night, Jack.”

Silence settled around them for a few minutes. Katherine’s eyes were closed and Jack was so sure that she was asleep. So he tested out the new words. “I love you.” He whispered, placing one more kiss to her head. He really couldn’t believe how easy those words were. They never came to him that easy before. 

Katherine was just on the cusp of falling asleep when she heard Jack speak. She couldn’t quite believe her ears. Did he really just say, what she thought he just said? She stepped out on a limb and replied back. “I love you, too.” 

Hearing her respond, Jack gasped, pulling back. Katherine whined as her head slid to hit the mattress beneath them. “Is that really so hard to believe?” She looked up at him, seeing his wide eyed expression as he looked down at her.

“I thought you were asleep.” He tried to explain.

“And that’s the only time you can tell me that?” She raised an eyebrow.

Silence fell over them as they stared at each other before he let out a soft, “no.”

She gave him a small smile and lifted her head a bit. “Then can I have my pillow back?” She even pouted a bit for good measure.

“Is that all I’m good for?” He asked as he snuggled in close once more.

“Yes.” She grinned, resting her chin on his chest so she could look up at him. “I love you.” She said after a small moment, leaning up to give him a sweet kiss.

“I love you, too.” He smiled up at her, returning the kiss before she laid back down. They fell asleep that night with the most genuine smiles.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya loves! I am so sorry that this has taken me SO long to finally get out. I really hope you enjoy the last chapter to Finding Home. I've so appreciated all the love that this story has received. Happy reading and much love!!

_ New York’s elite have been in pursuit of a modern day Robin Hood. While no one has been able to catch him, it seems as though all bank account hacking has ceased. Robin Hood first attacked those considered the biggest tyrant of those who live in the upper east side of the city. Making his way down to those who control the printed press, even going so far as to make their children know that he’s keeping a watch on them.  _

_ Many have shown support for Robin Hood’s tactics, imploring those living amongst riches to learn from the lesson. Those who had benefited from the hackings ask that they consider to continue to make donations to their causes. A good portion of those affected have agreed. _

_ Authorities are still searching for Robin Hood but with the hacker quieting down for the unforeseen future, the case may run cold. During these tense times, Robin Hood has reminded the people of New York just how generosity can go a long way. Below is a list of all organizations money had been donated to. Take a look to see if any of them speak to you and think about donating your time or money to help these great causes. _

“Good work, Plumber.” Her editor said as he tossed the paper on her desk.

There on the front page was her story, her byline. Modern Day Robin Hood Still At Large by Katherine Plumber. She grinned looking it over before looking up at her editor. “Thank you, sir.”

“Denton wants to have a word with you before the team meeting. So go on up there.” Her editor pointed towards Bryan Denton’s office. 

She nodded her head and grabbed her notebook before making her way to the chief editor’s office. Katherine knocked on the door before entering. “You wanted to see me?”

Bryan looked up from his computer and motioned for her to have a seat. “Did you know that just an hour after the paper had been delivered, the organizations you listed has seen an increase in donations and volunteers?”

Her eyes widened and shook her head. “No, sir.”

“And did you know that ticket sales are also affected the week after your reviews are released?”

Once more she shook her head. 

“You, Miss Plumber, are an incredibly persuasive writer. Your editor showed me your story notes. I want you as a regular reporter for the front page. You have a way to get people to care about what you’re telling them and they listen. You have a gift and while those on and off Broadway will surely miss it, I need that power to help sell papers. I’m putting you with the investigative team, effective immediately. Tell Corey to show you where your new desk will be.” He turned back to his computer and began typing. 

Katherine couldn’t believe it. She was finally an investigative journalist. She grinned as she stood from her chair. “Yes, sir. Thank you so much.” 

After she was done getting settled into her new desk, she snapped a picture and sent it to Jack with the caption:  _ guess where I am? _

_ Uh, at work? _

_ Yes but where? _

_ At your desk? What are you trying to get at here, princess? Did you redecorate? _

_ Something like that. You are now texting The Sun’s newest Investigative Journalist.  _

_ CONGRATS! So proud of you, ace. Meet at Jacobi’s after work. We’ll celebrate with the fellas and then tomorrow we’ll celebrate just you and me. _

She smiled at her phone. While she would much prefer to celebrate with just her and Jack, she knew that her new family would be hurt that they didn’t get to celebrate first. As expected the celebration was full of cheers, laughs, and chaos. Katherine was actually quite surprised Jacobi didn’t kick them out. Then again, she was pretty sure that he was used to the boys by now.

When they couldn’t take not being alone to celebrate anymore, Jack and Katherine said their goodbyes, deciding to walk back to their loft together. “I really am proud of ya, ace. You’re gonna take the world by storm.” Jack spoke up, swinging their hands softly between them.

“And so are you. I sense multiple Tony’s coming your way.” Katherine said with a proud smile.

“No one’s gonna write that news as good as you. You left some big shoes to fill.” He teased, causing her to roll her eyes.

“I’ll do ya one better.”

He raised an eyebrow in silent question, urging her to continue.

“I’ll be by your side at every one. No more having to follow press rules at those events. I actually get to enjoy them and show my biais.” She grinned up at him.

Jack easily returned her smile. “I think that’s something I could get used to.”

“For sure?” Katherine asked, enjoying the thought of a ong, happy future with Jack.

“For sure.” He replied, leaning down to kiss her. “If you ever need a stake out partner, just say the word.” He told her as he pulled back.

“You’ll be the first person I call.” She returned his smile before selling into his side. Oh, yes, she could most definitely get used to this feeling. What really drove it home was the feeling of Jack’s hand in hers as they celebrated and spoke of their future. Katherine Plumber had indeed finally found her home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END. 
> 
> I just wanted to say thanks again for all the love! I also wanted to let you know that there will be one last missing scene posted from this story before I say goodbye to Jack and Kath for the time being. You never know when the muse will strike again haha The missing scene btw will be a smutty one shot from their first time sleeping together so you may see things you may have read already. 
> 
> Okay, that's it from me. Many thanks and much love!


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